



? *>V/k' >. *r . 



c* v : 












































<♦ y; 



>°"V, 














/<* 




















"V. %. 











.<*" •• 






»•- <w A 



o > 



t« ^ & 



■/* 






***** * 






***** *i 



'W! ; ^"\ \W/ ♦♦*% °*W^ /'% -J 




" .# *~ * 





MEMOIR 

OF THE 

LIFE AND CHARACTER Sf>*^ 

or THE ^^ 

EATE, 

AN OFFICER OF MARINES 

IN TUB TJSITBD STATES* SERVICE I AFTERWARDS, 

ATTORNEY AT LAW 

IK THE STATE OF PEW* SYLVAWIA t ASD SUBiEaUEXTI^ 

A MINISTER OF THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH, 

AHS 

PRINCIPAL AGENT 

Of the American Government for person* liberated from Slave- 
Skips, on the Coast of Africa; 

Where he terminated his Life in the month of May, 1880. 



BY J. ASHMUN. 



WASHINGTON CITY: 



Sold by the BookseUcrfof the District of Columbia ; Richmond ; Petersburg s 
Norfolk; Baltimore , Philadelphia ; New York ; New Haven, and Boston. 

Jacob Gideon, junior, Printer. 

December, 1821. 









DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, to wit : 

^W****** BE IT REMEMBERED, That on the tenth day 

* s - * of December, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hun- 
dred and twenty-one, and of the Independence of the United 
States of America, the forty-sixth, J. Ashmun, A. B. of the said District, 
hath" deposited in this office the title of a Book, the right whereof he 
claims as author and proprietor, in the words following, to wit : 

" Memor of the Life and Character of the Rev. Samuel Bacon, A. M. 
" Late an Officer of Marines in the United States' service : afterwards, 
M Attorney at law in the State of Pennsylvania : and subsequently, a 
U Minister of the Episcopal Church, and Principal Agent of the 
'• American Government for persons liberated from Slave-Ships, on the 

" Coast of Africa ; where he terminated his Life in the month of 

" May, 1820. By J. Ashmun." 

In conformity to the act of the Congress of the United States, entitled 
<c An act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of 
maps, charts, and books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies du- 
ring the times therein mentioned ;" and also to the act, entitled " An act 
supplementary to an act, entitled c An act for the encouragement of lear- 
ning, by securing the copies of maps, charts, and books, to the authors 
and proprietors of such copies during the times therein menioned,' and ex- 
tending the benefits thereof to the arts of designing, engraving, and etch- 
ing historical and other prints." 

In testimony -whereof, I have hereunto set my hand , and affixed the 
public seal of my office, the day and year aforesaid. 

EDM. I.LEE, 
Clerk of the District of Columbia. 



ADVERTISEMENT. 

The late Hev. Samuel Bacon, about 
two years previous to his lamented death, 
commenced the preparation of a sketch of 
the principal events of his life. In this 
undertaking he was induced to engage, in 
the expectation of deriving some personal 
benefit from the recollections which the 
labour would supply his own mind; and of 
gratifying and profiting a few friends, to 
whose perusal it might be proper to offer 
the narrative. Of this sketch he drew up 
an outline ; in which, were put down, little 
besides the dates of the principal occur- 
rences of his history, down to the year 
1817, and an enumeration of such related 
subjects as he proposed to discuss in de r 
tail. The first chapter only of this outline, 
was all he lived to complete. 

His religious journal kept during the 
the years 1817 — 18 and 19, describes the 
progress of his mind in that important 
concern, with great fidelity : and his cor- 
respondence, and separate papers, written 
at different periods, and on a variety of 



IV 



subjects, are numerous and extensive: — 
and taken together, they have furnished 
abundant materials for the illustration of 
every important trait of his character, and 
the preservation of the most interesting 
incidents of his life. 

Few of his manuscripts were intended 
for publication, at all ; and none of them, 
in the state in which they came into the 
author's hands : he has therefore used 
the necessary liberty of correcting the style 
and phraseology of nearly all the passages 
introduced into the memoir: but in no 
case has the sense of the original been vo- 
luntarily perverted, nor his emendations 
obtruded upon it unnecessarily. In the il- 
lustration of subjects not essential to the 
sketch, he has commonly either filled 
an outline, or followed out an intention, 
contained in Mr. Bacon's papers: but for 
the manner in which this department of 
the work has been executed, and for the 
remarks interspersed, perhaps too freely, 
along with the incidents of the narrative, 
he is alone answerable. 

On several topics he has beenjinduced 
to dilate, with a view to commend them 



to a larger share of the public interest. 
This remark applies, particularly, to the 
concise statement of the objects and mea- 
sures of the American Colonization 
Society ; with which, indeed, the latter 
part of Mr. Bacon's history is inseparably 
connected. From this cause, the writer 
has never withheld those testimonials of 
his hearty attachment^ which the best 
use of his humble talents in its behaif 5 
has been able to confer. 

To several of the friends of the late 
Mr. Bacon, who have kindly supplied the 
deficiencies of his papers, he expresses 
his gratitude : and humbly commends the 
work to the blessing of God, and the 
candid reception of all whom the exam- 
pie of its pious subject is capable of bene- 
fiting. 

J. ASHMUN. 

Washington City, December, 1821. 



CONTENTS 



CHAR L 
Introduction. Mr. Bacon's Ancestry, His parentage. 
New England Characteristics. Social Regulations. 
Common schools. Legal provision for the support of 
Religion. The Standing Order. Mr. Bacon's early life. 
His religious impressions. His early occupations, and 
habits. Depressing circumstances of his youth. Pa- 
rental affection, 1 — 25. 

CHAP. II 

System of Divine Providence. Young Bacon's predilec- 
tion for literary pursuits. Domestic incidents. His 
entrance in a public school. Rigid economy* Account 
of New England Grammar schools. His proficiency. 
The recess. His ingenuousness. Termination of his 
minority. His neglected religious education. Final 
departure from his Father's house. His entrance in 
Harvard University. His poverty. His College ser- 
vices. Account of Harvard College. Its religious 
character. Effects on the character of the students. 
His progress. Termination of his College life. Dan- 
gerous illness. Destitution of religious sensibility. 
His entrance on a course of law reading. Edits the 
National iEgis. His removal to Pennsylvania, £6 — 59, 

CHAP. III. 

Fallacious Patronage. His infidelity. Journey into the 
interior. Repeated frustration of his hopes. Illness. 
His settlement in Lancaster. His disinterested labours . 
His success. Edits the Hive. His removal to York. 
His appointment in the Marine service. Removal to 



vu 

Washington. Duel. His marriage. Change of his 
religious views. His admittance to the bar. Illness. 
His return to York. Death of Mrs. Bacon. His in* 
dustry. Resignation of his commission, . 60—82, 

CHAR IV. 

Nature of Regeneration. His visit to Massachusetts* 
Alarming attack. Religious impressions. Relapses. 
Mental anguish. His conversion. His connexion with 
the Lutheran church. Means of his religious improve- 
ment. The change of his habits. Union with the Epis- 
copal church, 82 — 97 

CHAP. V. 

His engagement in Sunday schools. History of Sunday- 
schools. His labours in the cause. Method of disci- 
pline. His humility. Multiplication of his labours. 
Extraordinary exertions. His trials. Opposition. His 
Zeal. His discretion. His faith. Religious tracts. His 
Spiritual enjoyment. His success. Hymn, 98 — 142, 

CHAP. VI. 

Determination to relinquish his profession. Distribution 
of his time. His devotional habits. Characteristics of 
his piety. His superstition. Becomes a candidate for 
orders. Success of his exertions to promote religion. 
His visit to Philadelphia. Prosecution of his theologi- 
cal studies. Ordination. Diary. Habit of prayer, 
His delight in social worship. Extracts from his diary. 
His professional pursuits. Illustrations of his humility. 
Contrition. Conscious infirmities. His trials. Anti- 
cipation of death, - 14S — 184. 

CHAP. VII. 

His elevated standard in religion. The direct influences 
of the Divine Spirit. Illustrations of spiritual influ- 
ence in his experience. Illumination of his mind,. 



via 

His ardent pursuit of Holiness. Spiritual enjoyment 
His religion, practical. His rational Catholicism. Ad- 
vantages taken of his christian spirit Nature of a call 
lathe Ministry. His motives for entering the Ministry. 
His circumspection. His conscientiousness, 185 — £0G. 

CHAR VIII. 

Hi6 entrance on a mission for the Bible Society. His 
christian correspondence. Designation to the Afrcan 
agency. His Ministerial talents and labours. Prose- 
cution of his mission in Pennsylvania. Plans for ad- 
vancing the cause. Variety of his labours. Reflec- 
tions. Anecdotes. The missionary cause. Termina- 
' tion of his mission. Summary of his labours. His 
ministerial talents, and character, - 207 — 226 

CHAP. IX. 

Origin of slavery in America. Evils of slavery. Degra- 
ded state of freed blacks. History of the American 
Colonization Society. Benevolent measures of the 
government in behalf of captured Africans. Expedition 
of the Elizabeth to the coast of Africa. Mr. Bacon's 
departure from the United States. Organization of the 
service. Journal of his voyage to Africa. Arrival at 
Sierra Leone. Kroo-men. Natural history, 9.27 — 252. 

CHAP. X- 

Kev. Daniel Coker. Kizzel. Arrival in Sherbro. Mr, 
Bacon's return to Freetown. Campelar. Native Kings. 
Commencement of the sickness. Its causes. Increasing 
distress of the people. Their insubordination. Death 
of Messrs. Crozer and Townsend, Mr. Bacon's sick- 
ness. Last entry in his journal. Instance of inhu- 
manity. Removal to Cape Shilling. Death. Charac- 
ter. 255—280. 






MEMOIR 



REVEREND SAMUEL BACON. 



CHAP. I. 



The beneficial effects of a pious man's life 
are but partially realised, if, at its close, the world 
is denied a record of his example. And when 
to eminent piety, were superadded a public char- 
acter, active zeal and extensive usefulness, the 
obligations of duty and interest conspire with 
the gratitude of survivors, in requiring them to 
cherish and perpetuate his memory. In the in- 
ducement for presenting to the public a memoir 
of the late Rev. Samuel Bacon, all these con- 
siderations have their full influence. But the 
trait which shone most resplendently in his char- 
acter, and on account of which his memorial 
will long survive him, and his biography be chief- 
ly valued, is that of his entire devotion to his 
Saviour. In the last years of his life ' his con- 
versation was indeed in Heaven/ and ' his walk 
with God/ Superior to sectarian attachment^ 



& MEMOIR OF BxVCOls r . 

his fellowship was with the universal company 
of the faithful ; and his religion was that of the 
Bible, Its transforming energy received a full 
exemplification in the total change which it pro- 
duced in his character, the altered course of his 
pursuits, and the celestial elevation which it im- 
parted to all the affections of his mind* His 
piety, in short, was characterised with a strength 
and sublimity, of which even our privileged age 
is believed to have furnished very few examples* 

He was a native of the county of Wor- 
cester in the state of Massachusetts ; where he 
passed the twenty-three first years of his life. 
The paternal ancestor from whom his branch of 
the family descended, came to America about one 
hundred and twenty years ago, and settled in the 
province of Massachusetts bay, near Boston. 
Passing alone in the night, during a violent storm 
of snow, across the isthmus which connects 
Boston with Roxbury, he lost his way on the 
narrowest part, plunged with his horses into the 
wintry surf, and miserably perished. On the 
same night was born the grand-father of Sam- 
uel. The father had been induced by the ex- 
pectation of this event, to visit the town on the 
preceding day, in order to procure necessaries 
for the occasion. This is the family tradition. 

A New England farmer has little interest in 
tracing the genealogy of his ancestors above 
the last, or the second preceding generation ; 
and seldom has any other means of rescuing the 



MEMOIR OF 13ACON. 3 

events of their particular history from oblivion, 
than by recourse to the memory of the oldest 
living members of the family. The occurrences 
of the last age, to such as are laboriously em- 
ployed in the humble occupations of the pre- 
sent, and have their thoughts and their time 
engrossed by their immediate duties, have re- 
ceded too far, and are viewed as too detached 
and separate from the actual scenes of life, to be 
the objects of much inquiry, Hence, few events 
indeed, of their domestic history, survive the 
individuals personally conversant with them, 
above half a century. But, from the patriarchal 
age to which nearly every individual of Mr. 
Bacon's family attained, its memorials subse- 
quently to the catastrophe above noticed, are 
sufficiently numerous and certain. 

The causes to which the emigration of the 
first settlers of Massachusetts may be traced, 
operated almost entirely upon a particular class 
of the English community. The early regula- 
tions of the community conspired with this cir- 
cumstance, to produce among them an almost 
perfect identity of character : and, with the ex- 
ception^ their ministers, whose superior edu- 
cation and talents gave them a deserved distinc- 
tion, they all held nearly the same rank ia so- 
ciety. This, although humble, was not abject; 
and the experiment has proved it to be better 
adjusted to the preservation and advancement of 



4? MEMOIR OP BACON, 

general piety, prosperity and happiness, than 
any other. 

Mr. Bacon's American ancestors were far- 
mers, —the proprietors of the soil which they 
cultivated with their own hands ; procuring by 
incessant industry and strict frugality, a moder- 
ate competency for themselves, and their nume- 
rous families. Ephraim Bacon, the progenitor 
whose birth has been mentioned, after attaining 
to manhood, removed from Koxbury to Wood- 
stock, in that part of Connecticut contiguous to 
the county of Worcester in the state- of Massa- 
chusetts. There he settled, reared eight chil- 
dren, and died at an advanced age. The family 
constitution is remarkably vigorous. Of the 
eight children of Ephraim Bacon, seven are 
sous, and all are believed to be living at the pre- 
sent time. The age of the youngest is sixty, and 
of the oldest, about eighty-four. Sickness, ex- 
cept from casualties, is almost unknown to the 
family : all of whom u bore the appearance of the 
freshness of youth, even to middle age." 

Ephraim Bacon, the eldest of these brothers, 
removed at the age of twenty-four, to Sturbridge 
in Worcester county, about thirty miles from the 
paternal residence at Woodstock: where he ob- 
tained one hundred and fifty acres of land, then 
in an uncultivated state ; built a house with his 
own hands, and married Hannah Chamberlain. 
His removal took place about the year 1762. 
These were the parents of Samuel Bacon, who 






MEMOIR OF BACON. 5 

was the youngest of nine children, and born 
at Sturbridge, July 22d, 1781. His mother 
who died in 1790, is thus characterised in the 
affectionate language of her late son: "Her 
spirit was that of gentleness ; kind, pious, 
charitable, and humble. She knew but little 
enjoyment in this world. I never but once 
recollect seeing her out of her room. She was 
five years sick of a consumption, and nearly all 
that time confined to her room, — commonly to 
her bed. Her parentage was respectable. So 
much was she beloved and esteemed by all, that 
a general joy seemed to pervade her christian 
friends, when they heard of her release from suf- 
ferings, by an exchange of worlds. Her last 
words were a charge to her husband respecting 
her young children. For myself in particular, 
she had great solicitude. She often wished 
' Samuel might be like Samuel of old/ " 

The surviving parent continues, at the age of 
eighty-four years, to occupy the same farm, sur- 
rounded with the scenery of his youthful days, 
from which he seems never to have been many 
w 7 eeks absent. " It is there," — writes his soa 
with feelings prompted by filial tenderness, and 
characterised with much of the simplicity of 
nature, "It is there, he has laboured nearly 
sixty years at the plough, the scythe, the axe 
and the flail. It is there, his nine children were 
born. The spot is rendered sacred by the death 
of three children and a wife. There, often, very 



8 MEMOIR OF BACON, 

often, has the morning sua found him upon the 
hills before him, and the evening star has a 
thousand times lighted him at his labours. It is 
that spot which has been moistened by his sweat 
and his tears : there, have the wild and rugged 
roeks echoed the expressions of his grief, and 
his mirth. It is that soil, which, for many years 
sustained the firmness of his youthful tread, and 
now fetis the tottering footsteps of his age." 

The religious character of parents must al- 
ways materially affect that of their children. 
Of Iiis mother, the subject of this memoir re- 
marked, that, " for the time at which she lived, 
she exhibited uncommon evidence of a truly 
pious character," and took much pains tojimpress 
his mind with the truths of religion. With her 
husband, she was a professor of religion, and 
member of the Baptist church ; in which con- 
nexion he still continues. During Samuel's 
minority his father occasionally observed the 
forms of religion in his family; but appears at 
that period, very imperfectly to have understood 
its nature, and to have kuown little of its power. 

A general trait of the laborious yeomanry of 
New England, where the refining influence of the 
gospel has not imparted a softened tone to the 
affections of the mind, is roughness, and severity 
of temper. To the formation of this charac- 
teristic, a number of very obvious physical, 
and ether causes growing out of their circum- 
stances, directly conspire. It may easily con 



MEMOIR OF BACOtf. 7 

sist^ as commonly it does, with perfect inHexi- 
bility of principle, and correctness of moral de- 
portment. And such, until advanced much be- 
yond the limit of mature life, was the father of 
Samuel Bacon. " He possessed*" according to 
his son's relation "a good education ; a strong 
and masculine understanding, equal to all the. 
affairs of life; sound reasoning powers; fertility 
of invention ; a good judgment, and an enterpris- 
ing, intrepid character : but no gentleness. Suf- 
fice it to say, that to this day, while I feel the 
love a son should feel, I almost tremble in his 
sight But blessed be God, and I record it 
with gratitude, the scene is now changed. The 
religion of Jesus Christ has imparted its meek- 
ness to that rigid bosom, and the sun-set of his 
life is almost without its clouds* It is serene, 
and mild, and peaceful, as the closing eve." 

Another kindred quality which the necessity 
of severe and unremitting labour is extremely 
apt to beget in persons situated remote from the 
more fascinating objects of human pursuit, is ex- 
cessive frugality. Of the extent of this propen- 
sity in a father charged with the provision of a 
numerous family, it must be allowed that a son, 
ardently bent on acquirements which would place 
him above the humble rank inherited by the fa- 
mily, and which by a prescriptive association, 
was now identified with its very name, is not 
the best judge. Other reasons not so well seen. 
might unite with the penurious disposition of a 



8 MEMOIR 0£ BACON. 

parent, or operate without it, to induce him td 
oppose even unwilling hinderances to his son's 
more liberal pursuits. It is still true, that the 
needless severity of his father at this period, and 
the measures adopted for the government of the 
family, impressed on the intellectual and moral 
character of young Bacon, effects, of which ma- 
ny adhered to him until an advanced stage of 
his life, and some were retained to its very close. 

The circumstances which go to form the sen- 
timents of a New Euglander, on almost every 
subject, cannot be appreciated, nor his character 
understood, without a particular survey of the 
constitution and usages of the society from 
which he receives all his early impressions. 

The county divisions throughout New En- 
gland, differently from those of most of the 
other states, scarcely serve any other pur- 
pose than that of a convenient classification of 
the population, and to define the jurisdiction 
of magistrates and inferior courts. But the 
corporate rights of the towns, or sections of from 
four to six miles square, into which all the coun- 
ties are sub-divided, are guarded by the people, 
as forming the palladium of their social pros- 
perity. The officers of these corporations are, 
"one, three or five select men. They are called 
the fathers of the town. There is also an as- 
sessor, a constable and a treasurer, a few tything 
men, a town clerk, and other inferior officers. 
They have annual town meetings in March 



MliAlOIIl OF BACON. 9 

when these officers are chosen. At these meet- 
ings any bylaws can be passed which are not 
inconsistent with the laws of the state and the 
United States, for their internal regulation ; and 
any sum of money voted for the support of the 
gospel and schools, and for the construction of 
roads. The constitution recognises the duty 
of every citizen to contribute a just proportion 
of his property for the maintenance of public 
worship, and his obligation to attend upon it : 
and every man is in effect, supposed by law to 
be a congregationalist,* there being in nearly 
every town a decided majority of that denomina- 
tion,— until the contrary is shown. This deno- 
mination, is hence called ' The standing order.' 
The increase of otlier christians in the state has 
occasioned loud complaints of the inconveniences 
which they experience from tire operation of this 
system. Among the other things transacted in 
the town meetings, the question is put by the 
moderator * How much money will you raise 
this year for the support of schools V Several 
motions are made, proposing different sums. At 
length a certain sum is voted. It is then assess- 
ed on the inhabitants in proportion to their pro- 
perty, and goes to swell the aggregate of the 
taxes for the state and county, and for religious 
instruction, together with which it is collected, 
and goes into the town treasury. Each town 

* See Appendix, Note I. 
S 



10 MEMOIR OF BACON. 

being divided into a convenient number of 
wards, so that each ward may have as nearly as 
may be, an equal number of inhabitants, of whom 
no one shall be more than two or three miles 
from a school ; this sum is divided amongst the 
several wards in due proportion. The law pro- 
vides under a heavy penalty, that each town, 
containing a certain number of inhabitants, shall 
maintain a grammar-school during the year. 
But this provision is partially compromised by 
the dividing of their towns into wards as above 
stated, and supporting a school three months in 
each, during the winter season ; which is con- 
sidered as equivalent to a whole year, or more, 
in one place. This practice has at last grown 
into a general system, especially in country 
towns. Many however, raise money enough to 
support constant schools in each ward. During 
the surimer season while the boys are called oft* 
to assist in the labours of husbandry, the country 
schools are instructed by women ; in which girls 
are taught common needle-work, and other ap- 
propriate branches, and the young children ac- 
quire the rudiments of learning. 

" The school money, it has been said, is depo- 
sited in the treasury of the town. A school com- 
mittee-man is appointed at the town meeting for 
each ward. It is his duty to obtain a teacher. 
He generally applies to some neighbouring col- 
lege or academy, and finds one suitable for his 
purpose. No person is allowed to teach without 



MEMOIR OF BACON. 11 

having been previously examined by the clergy, 
man of the town, in which he proposes to teach, 
and recommended by him as competent for the 
business. He must also have a certificate of the 
select-men of the town where his settlement or 
home is. that he sustains a good moral character. 
This done, he may begin, otherwise he is liable 
to a penalty for teaching. The select-men, the 
committee-man of each ward, and the clergymen 
of the * Congregational order/ are, ex officio, a 
committee to examine the schools in the town, to 
report as to their proficiency, and censure or ap- 
plaud accordingly. In respect to education the 
great benefits to be derived from granting to tow r ns 
corporate privileges like these, is apparent. 
When the teacher has completed his contract, he 
makes out his account, charging the town with so 
much service in teaching, at such a price per 
month. This is passed by the select-men, and 
paid by the treasurer. Thus the rich and the poor 
are on the same footing as to the necessary branch- 
es of an education. Indeed, the poor have the ad- 
vantage, for the taxes are levied according to the 
property which each possesses; and the poor 
who pay nothing, still enjoy all the benefits of 
the school. The other advantages of the system 
require no explanation." 

The nature of the provision made by law for 
the support of religious instruction and public 
w r orship in Massachusetts, is accurately under- 



1% MEMOIR OP BACON. 

stood by few, even of our own citizens, who live 
in the states where no such provision exists. 

In the Declaration of Rights, which serves as 
the basis of legislation, for that state, it is assum- 
ed, that " piety, religion, and morality" are ne- 
cessary for the temporal well-being of the com- 
munity ; and that the support of the teachers and 
institutions of religion, are necessary to the pre- 
valence and influence of religion itself. In con- 
formity with this principle, it is declared to be the 
duty of every person to contribute an equitable 
proportion towards the support of religious insti- 
tutions ; and, where there exists no conscientious 
impediment, occasionally to attend at some place 
of public worship. It is further declared to be 
the privilege of every town or parish, to choose 
its own religious teachers ; and that, among the 
ministers actually so chosen and officiating, every 
individual shall have the right of directing the ap- 
plication of his own tax, agreeably to his choice. 
As all preference to any particular denomination 
of Protestant christians, is expressly disclaimed, 
the laws grounded on these principles, can be 
partial in their operation only from the influence 
of circumstances. It however, deserves to be 
inquired, whether even the known or probable 
circumstances which may obstruct their uniform 
operation, do not render them justly exception- 
able. 

The dissatisfaction expressed by the despi- 
sers and neglecters of every form of religion. 












MEMOIR OF BAlCOX. 13 

merits very little regard, provided religion be a 
public blessing. There will then remain two 
classes only, in relation to whom these laws can 
be considered as even apparently partial, or se- 
vere. The first, consists of those conscientious 
persons who, too weak in the respective parishes 
where they reside, to obtain, and provide agreea- 
bly to law, for a minister of their own, are obliged 
to contribute towards the support of one in whose 
election they could not concur, and on whose min- 
istrations they do not attend. Here is certainly 
plausible ground of complaint : still, the ques- 
tion of the expediency of the system, must be 
decided by determining whether its advantages 
to the community, outweigh these partial incon- 
veniences. The sense of a majority of the peo- 
ple of these states, has always, till very recent- 
ly, declared itself in favour of the affirmative of 
the inquiry. The question is of acknowledged 
importance, and of very difficult solution. Ano- 
ther class of persons are honestly opposed to 
the principle of any legal interference whatever, 
in matters of religion. But this is manifestly, 
one of those extreme doctrines, which the fram- 
ers of our general constitution were too wise not 
to perceive to be utterly impracticable ; and 
therefore, did not attempt to consecrate by its 
admission into that instrument. All that they 
attempted, was to restrain to its proper limits, the 
degree of legal interference on this subject. Civil 
government, without the sanctions of religion, 



44 MEMOIR OF BACON. 

must fall ; and therefore, to guard the inviola- 
bility of these sanctions, and even to increase 
their force, is a duty connected with that of self- 
preservation. 

The union of these two classes, seconded by 
the indifference of too great a number to religion, 
audits institutions, in general, has very recently 
obtained for them as favourable a modification of 
the statute laws as they can admit, without a pal- 
pable violation of their constitution. 

It would be thinking too favourably of hu- 
man nature to suppose that the religious order 
almost exclusively privileged by the operation of 
the former system, should not, in some instances 
have asserted their legal rights with a precision, 
and enforced them by measures but little calcu- 
lated to conciliate the affections of their dissent- 
ing brethern. The worst form in which the 
execution of these laws ever appeared, was 
in the legal processes which followed the refu- 
sal of persons of other denominations, volun- 
tarily to pay the tax which they required. In 
cases of this sort, where the clergyman for 
whose support the money was assessed, either 
could not, or would not relinquish it, the goods 
of the recusant were distrained and sold, to pro- 
duce it. The odium which could not fail to at- 
tach, in the popular mind, to transactions of this 
nature, has unquestionably gone further to wea- 
ken the interest of the Congregational cause, 
than all those extreme measures, could ever do 



MEMOIR OF BACON, 15 

to strengthen it. For, the shape which the com- 
plaint of the sufferer assumed with something 
more than the semblance of truth, was, that • his 
goods had been sacrificed for the support of a 
religion which he did not believe, of a clergy- 
man whom he only knew as his oppressor, and 
of a form of worship which he never attended.' 
The genius of the evangelical dispensation 
doubtless demands the voluntary contribution 
of christians for the support of its institutions. 
The members of a christian community certainly 
may consent to give to these contributions the 
form of an equalised tax, without, in the least, 
impairing the liberality of the principle on 
which they are made. Nor would this effect 
necessarily follow the investing of their civil 
rulers with power to organize the system of taxa- 
tion, and provide for its being carried into effect. 
But, in order to avoid those offences which would 
powerfully tend to defeat the good intention of 
this arrangement, so far as the promotion of pure 
religion is concerned, it is necessary that the com- 
munity should possess an uncommon share of 
piety, and that their acquiescence should be cheer- 
ful, unconstrained, and general. Such was once 
the character of a large portion of the New Eng- 
land population; and the happiesi consequences 
resulted from the public provision made for the 
support of religion, with very few of its evils. 
And on that basis, was, in a great measure, built 
the deserved reputation of those states for reli- 



1.6 MEMOIR OF BACON. 

gion and morality-; of which, after all proper 
abatements are made, there certainly remains a 
substantial fund, that no other christian country 
of equal population can justly claim.* 

In this community, under institutions such 
as have been described, and in a secluded coun- 
try situation, the subject of this memoir acquir- 
ed the rudiments of knowledge and letters, re- 
ceived his first religious impressions, and form- 
ed all his early habits. His parents beiug Bap- 
tists, are to be ranked among the non-conformists 
of the time, and experienced in consequence, in- 
conveniences which gave to their son's mind an 
early bias against f the principle of religious 
taxation, which he never afterwards entirely dis- 
missed. The death of his mother, before he 
had completed his tenth year, left him entirely 
dependent on the religious instruction and super- 
intendence of his father, who, except affording 
him an opportunity of frequenting public wor- 
ship, in a great measure neglected it. Being, by 
the ecclesiastical system of that denomination, 
denied any visible connexion with their church, 
the kind and degree of religious tuition which 
he received from an occasional attendance on 
its public services, may be named any thing 
else with more propriety, than a regular relig- 
ious education. He had on several occasions 
very affecting impressions of the awful interests 

* See Appendix, Note II. t See Appendix, Note III. 



MEMOIR OF BACON, 17 

of eternity, during his boyhood : but his ac- 
quaintance with the principles of the gospel was 
so imperfect, and his notions of religion so vague 
and confused, that these emotions always pass- 
ed off with the cause which excited them, and 
tended in the event, to harden and pervert, 
rather than permanently to benefit him. 

His alarm on these occasions, appears to have 
consisted only of a general apprehension that 
his soul was unsafe, and that wrath was reser- 
ved for him on account of his sins. His know- 
ledge of the evangelical system was nearly re- 
stricted to the doctrinal facts that there were a re- 
surrection, a judgment, a Heaven and a Hell; 
that the Son of trod had died for the benefit of 
man, and that sins were in some way expiated 
through his sufferings.- To a more perfect in- 
sight into the truths of salvation, he had none 
both able and disposed to guide him, — a con- 
dition of his early lot, which he afterwards 
found occasion to deplore, as his heaviest calam- 
ity. The impressions which his mind had re- 
ceived from the affectionate solicitude for his 
spiritual welfare manifested by his mother dur- 
ing her protracted illness, contributed greatly to 
heighten the constitutional tenderness of his feel- 
ings, and quicken the operations of conscience ; 
and in their general effects, had a lasting 
influence on his character. But, to her prayers 
in his behalf, he afterwards attributed a more 
important agency, in his salvation. 

3 



18 MEMOIR OF BACON. 

Shortly after the death of this beloved par- 
ent, he relates his first serious religious convic- 
tions to have taken place ; which appear to have 
been produced by the superstitious construction 
that his neighbours gave to a very natural cir- 
cumstance. A common plant had sprung up on 
his mother's grave, which from its vigorous growth 
and uncommon form, gave occasion to some 
very weak predictions of an ominous nature, that 
much alarmed him. The predictions of course, 
failed : but the impressions, as they gave his 
thoughts a strong direction towards religious 
things, might have proved salutary, had he en- 
joyed at the time, the guidance of a judicious 
and pious spiritual instructor. This occurrence 
was in his eleventh year. His time from this 
period, became more occupied in the laborious 
business of the farm, and a small portion only, 
was left for the improvement of his mind in 
the rudiments of learning. 

Before the recent multiplication of books in 
tb&t part of the country, the course of reading 
to which a country youth was obliged to confine 
himself, was commonly very limited. The 
branches in which instruction was afforded in the 
common schools, were those of reading, writing, 
and common arithmetic. A brief elementary 
treatise on each of these subjects, the Bible, 
Watt's Psalms and Hymns, and a very few hered- 
itary domestic volumes, commonly on religious 
subjects, constituted the only library to which 



MEMOIR OF BACON. 19 

he could have recourse. Thus situated; it 
would be a solecism to suppose that a young 
person, however constitutionally disposed to in- 
tellectual pursuits, should acquire a taste, or 
form a habit of reading. The character of 
young Bacon's mind w r as unusually contempla- 
tive and susceptible ; but, from the paucity of 
objects on which his thoughts could dwell with 
advantage, and the entire absence of those ex- 
citements so necessary to the development of 
its faculties, his cogitations were of a very un» 
fruitful kind : and whole years past off without 
any sensible advancement in knowledge, or 
much mental improvement. This contempla- 
tive turn made it " impossible/* he states, " for me 
to w r ork alone. Whenever I attempted it I soon 
fell into a profound reverie on the heavens, on 
the trees, the birds, the plants, and scenery 
about me, and would for hours be lost in thought ; 
my axe or hoe would fall from my hand, and I 
would think no more of it until roused by the 
approach of my father or some one of the fami- 
ly. I then would seize my implement, and ply it 
with the greatest activity and the most poignant 
regret for the time I had lost." This trait was 
censured by his frends, and at that time lamented 
by himself, as a very unfortunate one ; and tend* 
ed, in conjunction with the domestic discords that 
bad multiplied in consequence of the second mar- 
riage of his father, to embitter the whole of his 
subsequent residence under the paternal roof. 



20 MEMOIR OF BACON. 

To this latter circumstance his writings several 
times allude, in the language of grief tempered 
with filial respect. He deplores it as the fatal 
cause of domestic disorganization, of the de- 
struction of family religion, and the neglect of 
parental instruction, in the little scene which he 
w r as obliged to consider, but could never feel to 
be, a "home." Its effects on his character were 
lasting. They may be traced in something like 
a morbid dejection of spirits, which the happiest, 
scenes of his life were not able wholly to correct ; 
and the want of early discipline manifestly ag- 
gravated the natural irascibility of his temper. 
But though occasionally passionate, and always 
ardent in his attachments and pursuits, he was 
not vindictive ; and the natural temperament 
of his mind was uncommonly mild, placable 
and affectionate, Cut off, by his situation, 
from many of the temptations to vice, and oppor- 
tunities of indulging in the seducing amusements 
which smooth the path of ruin to thousands of 
the youth of our cities, he was addicted to no 
open immoralities ; but still, grew up a stranger 
to piety, to himself and to his (rod. Obscure as 
his path in life was, and harmless as were his 
pursuits, they both lay in the world. And 
though ill at ease with himself, he did not at this 
time know to what a debased state of moral 
wretchedness, the " corruption of his nature" 
had consigned him ; nor what he required to 



MEMOIR OF BACON. SI 

compose an accusing conscience to peace, and im- 
part happiness to his mind. 

In his thirteenth year, a stronger religious 
bias was given to his thoughts, than ever before. 
He was suddenly and strangely seized, in his 
bed, with a distressing affection, probably of an 
epileptic nature, which threatened to terminate 
in immediate death. The family were aroused. 
His father, who sometimes prayed in the do- 
mestic circle, at his request, engaged in earnest 
intercession for him. He was greatly affected by 
the petition, u Spare thy young servant, who 
believes himself dying," which he could never 
forget. The paroxysm of his disorder passed 
off for that time; but the whole circumstance 
made an impression which he was not able soon 
to dismiss. On this occurrence, he subsequently 
remarked, " Had I at that time been taught the 
way of salvation, and had the true nature of my 
case then been explained to me, the effect might 
have been most salutary ; my whole life after- 
wards, might have been a happy and useful one. 
But I fear there was no one about me who knew 
for himself, ' the way, the truth and the life ; ? 
and of course, there was none to instruct me. 
Although my father prayed, yet I neither at- 
tempted, nor was I directed to do it myself. 
I was entirely ignorant of the plan of salvation ;— 
a young Hindoo could scarcely be more so," 

In the occasional struggles which took place 
in his mind, at this time, and for the space of 



%% MEMOIR OF BACONS. 

three or four years afterwards, lie recognised at a 
subsequent period, the ' striving of the spirit of 
God/ But his ignorance concurred with his 
natural depravity, gradually to stifle and extin- 
guish the divine influence. Seldom did his re- 
ligious convictions lead him farther, than occa- 
sionally to repeat the Lord's prayer on retiring 
to rest. As he advanced towards manhood, even 
this semblance of religious duty was neglected, 
and a confirmed spiritual stupor rested on all the 
faculties of his mind. 

The five subsequent years of his life afford 
scarcely any thing of interest or variety worth 
recording. He more seldom read the scriptures, 
than formerly ; and fast wore out of his feelings, 
the slight religious traces of his earlier years. 
The laborious scene upon which his life had 
opened, and the limited range of objects to which 
it confined him, were equally suited to repress 
the active mental energies which lay unconscious- 
ly buried in his breast. His straitened circum- 
stances, and even the garb in which he was oblig- 
ed to appear, forbade him to associate on terms 
of equality, even with his rustic companions ; 
and produced a feeling of inferiority, which dis- 
covered itself in an embarrassed deportment, and 
became so much a habit, as never, he confessed, 
entirely to leave him. 

In his eighteenth and nineteenth years, he 
accounted himself happy in being able to obtain, 
by earnest intreaty, the pitiful privilege of ex- 



MEMOIR OF BACON. 23 

iling himself from his father's roof, and labour- 
ing for a neighbouring farmer. This alternative 
afforded him neither emolument, nor mitigation 
of toil ; his wages being applied to pay a sub- 
stitute for performing his services at home. But 
it removed him from beneath the depressing 
frown of a parent, and from the din of too fre- 
quent domestic discord and recriminations. 

Blinded indeed, must that parent be by the 
strength of habitual passion, who does not see ; 
and callous, in the extreme, his breast, if he 
does not feel, for the effects which such treatment 
of a child, and especially, which such an exam- 
pie, must infallibly have on his character, and 
happiness. In the sacredness of the domestic 
retreat his little interests all instinctively centre. 
It is nearly all the world he knows. The first 
objects which his tender mind opening into ex- 
istence, ever learns to love and venerate, are the 
names of mother, sister and father. On that soft 
area the young and unpractised powers of the 
soul and body, make their first simple and imi- 
tative efforts. Here are shed more tears than 
water the whole path of life, besides ; and here^ 
are tasted the liveliest joys which the world ha§ 
power to awaken. Example, at this period of life^ 
not only makes a deep impression, but exerts a 
transforming influence upon its susceptible sub- 
ject. Hither, he instinctively looks back from all 
his little excursions into the rougher and stranger 
scenes of that life to which riper age is destined? 



I 



m MEMOIR OF BACON. 

for rest, instruction and solace. Who, that hag 
once been young, and whose childhood ever had 
a home, but feels in reviewing that most innocent 
and delicious period of his existence, these sof- 
tening recollections steal over his soul 'till they 
dissolve it ? If virtue, if piety itself have a con- 
genial soil on earth, it must be here. And 
here, the economy of Heaven has designed 
that it should be. It is nature's appointment, 
confirmed by the concurrent injunction of the 
gospel : ' fathers, provoke not your children to 
wrath, but bring them up in the nurture and ad- 
monition of the Lord.' Relying on the grace with 
which he who gave, is willing to accompany a 
sincere endeavour to obey this command, parents 
may train their offspring to love and fear their 
Saviour. But, associate in the youthful mind, 
with the idea of a father, the image of terror : 
divest home of its endearments and of its sa- 
credness : admit contention, malevolence and 
dislike, to usurp in that retreat, the places of the 
opposite charities : let the natural guardians of 
his morals, present too, an example of passion- 
ateness and strife: drive him by needless severi- 
ty, to look to strangers and the world, for an 
asylum from domestic persecutions : and take 
into the account the child's inexperience, the 
volatility of the animal spirits, the weakness of 
reason, and above all, the deep moral corruption 
of his nature ; and a miracle of God's providence 
and grace must preserve him, from the stupefac- 



MEMOIR OF BACON, £5 

tion of all feeling on the one hand, or from out- 
rageous profligacy and depravation of principle 
on the other. 

That young Bacon suffered in both these 
respects, and in the latter with some severity, is 
less to be wondered at than regretted. When 
man suffers himself, even through inadvertence, 
to derange the most important part of the system 
contrived by the wisdom of his Maker, for the 
formation of young immortals to his service, the 
deed is perilous, and the consequences may be, 
bevond calculation, disastrous, 



&6 MEMOIR OF BACO&* 



CHAP. It. 

Who, that has not observed its progress, and 
marked its increasing volume and strength, would 
imagine that the little rill from the hill-side, could 
ever swell to a navigable expanse, and pour a 
tributary flood into some neighbouring ocean ? 
Or, who that contemplates separately and alone, 
the first in a train of events which have conspired 
to produce in the moral world, the most magnifi 
cent results, could possibly connect it with its 
end ? The river must be traced in its descent, 
the links of the chain must be numbered, or we 
should never credit the increase of the one, or 
the wonderful continuity and connexions of the 
other. To how slight a circumstance can every 
reflecting person refer the origin of some of the 
most momentous passages of his life ! The most 
edifying impressions of the universal agency of 
the Supreme Ruler of the world, may be derived 
from contemplating the progress of his own coun- 
sels, from stage to stage, in the way of their 
fulfilment. The opposition of human wisdom 
and strength, only discovers their own weakness 
and folly. All human estimates of the probable 
chances of their success and failure, are mocked 
by the results. 

" There's a Divinity that shapes our ends, 

Rough hew them how we will :" 



MEMOIR OF BACON. &7 

And, happily for man, although his weakness 
and his ignorance cannot thwart, nor compre- 
hend the plans of Heaven, yet may they suhmit 
to be instructed and guided ; and this is all that 
his duty and his happiness require. How often 
is the providence of God employed for our high- 
est good, without our co-operation ! how often 
even against our best contrived and most strenu- 
ous endeavours ! It is a delightful employment 
of the man of prayer who 'commits all his 
ways to the Lord/ to review from the different 
stages of his journey, the paths by which the 
Lord has mysteriously led him. How few of 
all does he discover to have been those of his 
previous choice ! But the guardian providence 
and mercies of God extend to the unthankful 
and disobediente Such indeed, walk in dark- 
ness, and understand little of the 'counsel of 
the most High.' But where is the rational crea- 
tion of God on earth, though an athiest in his 
principles, and a profligate in his conduct, who 
is not compelled to admit, and to admire, in not 
a few of the events of his life, the marked in- 
terposition of a superior power? An adventu- 
rous scepticism may indeed do much, — and an 
habitual disuse of sober reflection, by sinking 
the intellectual into the sensual nature, still 
more, to exclude from a man's mind the con- 
viction of a particular providence. Still, the 
doctrine has an advocate in his conscience, and 



&8 MEMOIR OF BACON. 

boldly as it is sometimes disclaimed, is never 
wholly disbelieved. 

Mr. Bacon is now known to have been de- 
signed in the counsels of Providence, to exhibit 
to the world a short and luminous career of dis- 
tinguished usefulness ; and to leave to the chris- 
tian church, in the effects of a signal example of 
holiness and zeal, a still more invaluable legacy. 
But, in his twentieth year, the utmost reach of 
human sagacity could discover little in his prin- 
ciples, or his circumstances, on which an oppo- 
site designation in almost every particular, might 
not with much greater probability, have been 
predicted. lie indeed, uniformly exhibited a 
strong propensity for intellectual pursuits, and 
an uncommon facility of acquiring knowledge. 
But his highest ambition appears to have been to 
acquire, eventually, a peaceful settlement and 
comfortable subsistence in the humble sphere to 
which his intercourse, and nearly all his acquain- 
tance with the world, was restricted. The hills 
which bounded his sight were to him as much 
theflammantia limina mundi, as HerschePs orbit 
to the accomplished astronomer i and the phi- 
losopher would nearly as soon lay the scene 
of his own life in the regions beyond, as young 
Bacon at the time, have meditated a pursuit 
which should draw him out of his rustic solitude. 
His friends attributing the effects of his contem- 
plative disposition to indolence, judged him betr 
ter suited to succeed in some trade ; of which 



MEMOIR OF BACON. S9 

several of the most serviceable kinds can always 
be exercised with advantage in an agricultural 
population. Mechanical occupations pursued 
even with diligence, are seldom so laborious as 
those of a New England farmer : and Samuel 
consented to be advised in this respect, rather 
from the desirable change which such a plan 
would make in his immediate situation, than from 
any settled predilection for the life of a mechanic. 
But his services had now become too valuable to 
his father, to be conveniently dispensed with— ^aud 
some delay was incurred by the difficulty of deter- 
mining on the business which should be at the 
same time, the most profitable, and best suited to 
the genius of the candid ate. From these causes 
Bacon had attained his twentieth year before it 
was decided in what way he was to be disposed 
of. " But, at this time" he relates, "a person 
of imposing impudence and great loquacity came 
into the neighbourhood, who professed to be a 
physician. It happened to be a sickly season, 
and he was soon called into business. Very 
many people died, and the doctor's coffers were 
filling fast This latter circumstance attracted 
my fathers attention, and he thought his son 
might as well learn the trade too, as it proved so 
lucrative. The doctor indeed, was soon out of 
vogue. But while his high credit lasted the 
bargain was made by my father, and the plan 
communicated to me for my concurrence. Des- 
titute as I was of learning, and even of a knowi 



SO MEMOIR OF BACON. 

ledge of what it imported, I still knew, and ven- 
tured to say, that my education was not sufficient 
for the business. My father thought more edu- 
cation useless. I was too sensible of my defi- 
ciency in this point to be convinced, and it was 
finally agreed I should go to live eight weeks^ 
with the pastor of the Baptist church of Stur- 
bridge, to learn English grammar. The charge 
for board and tuition was one dollar and twenty- 
five cents per week. This was thought too extra- 
vagant, and my father proceeded to Leicester aca- 
demy, sixteen miles distant, to ascertain whether 
a cheaper accommodation could not be procuredc 
He found that tuition there was one dollar per 
quarter, and board could be had for one dollar a 
week, so that in eight w eeks, one dollar would be 
saved by sending me to that school. It was accord- 
ingly determined that I should go to Leicester." 
It cannot be expected that his knowledge of 
letters was at this time, very extensive. " I was 
able," he states, <° to read English, correctly, and 
could spell well the common terms of the lan- 
guage,— understood the simple rules of arithme- 
tic, and could write as bad a hand, nearly, as at 
this time.* This was the extent of my learning. 
1 knew nothing even of English grammar, and, 
as regards the stores of Latin, Greek, and other 
classical learning, I believe 1 knew not that there 

* Mr. Bacon's penmanship was executed with great 
rapidity, and without much attention, often, either to ele- 
gance or le^ibilitv. 









MEMOIR OF BACON. 31 

Were such languages or literature in existence/* 
This, it must be granted, is an uncommon speci- 
men of ignorance in a yonth nearly arrived at 
the age of manhood, in the enlightened and cul- 
tivated state of Massachusetts. It would be 
wholly incredible, if not viewed in connexion 
with the very unpropitious circumstances of 
young Bacon's situation during his .minority. 
His capacity for acquiring knowledge was cer- 
tainly of a superior order, and he could have re- 
mained in such ignorance, until that time of life 
only in consequence of am absolute destitution 
of the means of removing it. 

In pursuance of the singular project which 
his father had formed in concert with the doctor, 
Samuel was conducted away to Leicester on the 
first of April, 1801, and entered in the English 
department of the grammar school in that town. 
Some idea of the economy observed in provid- 
ing this course of instruction, has been afforded 
by the caution which his father had previous- 
ly bestowed on that point. The same pru- 
dence was evinced in carrying the plan into ef- 
fect. His father accompanied him on horseback, 
carrying provisions to subsist himself and the 
horses, until his return ; saw him provided with 
two or three elementary books and a boarding 
place ; paid the four shillings demanded for his 
tuition ; and, on parting, impressed by a fresh re- 
petition, some prudential maxims on the neces- 
sity of habitual economy. To enforce this leg- 



32 MEMOIR OF BACON* 

son by a practical comment, he presented his son 
with twenty-five cents, which he informed him, 
was to meet the incidental expenses of the term. 
Samuel had gained his main point, and easily 
overcame the chagrin occasioned by this very 
restricted allowance for purposes which he knew 
were of only secondary importance. 

The grammar schools established in all the 
counties of this state, are commonly provided 
with too instructors ; one of whom has the care 
of the classical, the other of the English depart- 
ment. Into the latter are admitted youths of 
both sexes. The course of instruction in the 
lower department, is understood to commence 
where that of the common schools, ends. A very 
good knowledge of the English language may 
here be acquired, together with geography an 
the most useful branches of mathematics. 

In the classical department, the elements of 
the Latin and Greek languages are the principal 
objects of attention ; and young men acquire the 
learning requisite for entrance in the colleges of 
that country. The funds which support these 
useful institutions are commonly the joint pro- 
duce of public grants, and private munificence; 
the exercise of the last by the individuals most 
interested, being the usual condition on which the 
first are made. These funds are secured from 
alienation by an act of the legislature, and en- 
trusted to the management of a board of trustees 
invested with corporate powers; and together 



d 



MEMOIR OF BACONo S3 

with a very moderate charge for tuition, paid by 
the pupils, amply defray the expenses of the 
school. 

Bacon found himself, on being introduced to 
this little scene of literary activity, addressed by 
new objects of interest and ambition, to the in- 
fluence of which he could not long remain insen- 
sible. Scarcely a remark of his seniors in study 
passed without notice, or failed to convey some 
new idea, and excite a new train of reflections. 
From hearing, he ventured to inquire ; and be- 
sides his progress in the particular studies upon 
which he was put, which w 7 as very extraordinary, 
he acquired much information on other subjects^ 
of which he was before utterly ignorant. His 
application was incessant. Even his nights were 
laid under large contributions. Three days serv- 
ed him to commit to memory the principles of 
English grammar, and his advancement in other 
studies was equally rapid. He had entered upon 
pursuits in which, for the first time, he felt con- 
scious of a capacity to succeed. The field of 
literature enlarged on his view beyond his former 
conceptions on the subject — he was surrounded 
by a multitude of youths destined to explore its 
richer treasures ; his ambition was fired ; and he 
formed a determination, from which he never 
afterwards receded, to acquire an education of 
the most liberal kind. Even at this period, that 
native vein of benevolence which run through 

his character, and which piety afterwards devel* 

5 



84 MEMOIR OF BACON. 

oped with peculiar lustre, had a principal share 
in sustaining this almost romantic purpose. 
Without patronage, without money, he indeed, 
required the aid of his own sanguine tempera- 
ment, and a very strong impression of the ad- 
vantages connected with a good education, to 
engage him in the pursuit of one. Bacon's am- 
bition was of an ardent cast ; but, both in its 
objects and its nature, was through life, marked 
with an amiable regard to the rights and happi- 
ness of others. Depressed as his spirit had ever 
been by a load of cares, labours and troubles, 
quite disproportioned to his strength, such was 
the inherent ingenuousness of his nature that the 
hope of enlarging the sphere of his usefulness, 
more than the prospect of future distinction, at 
this time animated his singular resolution. And* 
"amidst my subsequent severest trials," he 
states, "I have said to myself a thousand times, 
let me press on to the completion of my object; — 
it is the way to usefulness ; my capacity of doing 
good depends on my perseverance. The anti- 
cipation always imparted fresh vigour and cheer- 
fulness to my zeal." 

His first instructor at Leicester was Caleb 
Boutelle, Esq. His proficiency under this gen- 
tleman, in the brief term of eight weeks, was al- 
most incredible. In June, he was recalled to the 
work of the farm, and remained thus employed 
until September. He had in the mean time, 
ventured to express to his father, his wishes in 



MEMOIR OF BACON. 35 

relation to an education ; but was forbidden, un- 
der penalty of his severe displeasure, to indulge 
so " wild and irrational an imagination." His 
purpose, which he forbore to express, was, how- 
ever, unshaken. As a very special indulgence, 
permission was at length granted him to return 
to school, for another term of eight weeks. This 
indulgence was turned to the same good account 
as the preceding ; and in the month of Novem- 
ber of the same autumn, Bacon was qualified 
to take charge of the parish school, where bB 
had himself received the rudiments of learning. 
He applied himself with great diligence and 
success to the duties of this new and honourable 
vocation, for the ensuing four months : and, at 
the expiration of his engagements, was gratified 
with very flattering commendations by his em- 
ployers. His success served as a new incentive 
to perseverance in his studies. His father drew, 
and appropriated his wages; and finding that 
his son's learning was likely to prove a source 
of immediate emolument, was prevailed upon 
by painful intreaty, to consent to his spending 
another term of the same continuance as the two 
preceding, at the grammar school. Bacon, im- 
mediately on his return, begun Latin. The 
grammatical forms commonly learnt by begin- 
ners in that language, were committed to memo- 
ry in five days. Before the expiration of the 
two months to which his stay at school was li- 
mited, he had entered upon the easy Latin poets. 



36 MEMOIR OF BACON. 

While employed as the preceding summer, in 
the business of the farm, he completed his twen- 
ty-first year ;— a point in life, to the attainment 
of which, he had long looked forward with im- 
patient anxiety. Pitiable indeed is the lot of 
that son who can cherish without inexcusable 
impiety, so unnatural an anticipation. Most 
dangerous would be the doctrine that the exces- 
sive rigour of a parent, or imperfections which 
even a child is obliged to discover, can dissolve 
the natural and immutable obligation of filial 
obedience and submission ; or make the re- 
straints and demands of parental authority a 
grievance. The thought is alike abhorrent to 
religion, and reason. Few domestic dissentions 
ever leave the party sustaining the subordinate 
relation, the least culpable : the quiet and sub- 
missive attitude, which, in that case, it becomes 
the duty of that party to assume, would com- 
monly disarm the asperity of the other. Sel- 
dom can the danger be on the side of conceding 
too much : and, admitting the individual holding 
the subordinate place to be the injured party, 
liis obligation to pursue the most pacific course, 
is unimpaired by the circumstance. If redress 
is the object sought, a submissive deportment is 
surest to obtain it. But the dictates of reason 
in this duty, are sanctioned by the express max- 
ims of religion. The father is accountable to 
his God, and not to his child : the child to God, 
under Jiis father. The same principle extends 



MEMOIR OF BACON. 37 

itself with the necessary modifications, through 
the other relations of domestic life, — a principle 
plainly recognised in the word of God, but 
which is less regarded even by christians of the 
present, than of former ages ; and, with some 
others, of greater importance, is in danger of 
being even set aside, as the obsolete characteris- 
tic of a less enlightened period ! 

In the deportment of young Bacon under the 
very painful and perilous discipline to which his 
patience and his principles were subjected from 
this cause, there is more to approve and less to 
condemn, than many, possessing better advan- 
tages, and professing to be governed by sublime? 
motives, have exhibited in less trying circum- 
stances. It deserves moreover, to be placed to 
his credit in the account, that parental tenderness 
and instruction had never fully established in 
his mind, the boundaries and land-marks of 
filial duty. He had little more than an instinc- 
tive impression on the subject, to guide him, until 
his own uninstructed good sense suggested a few 
additional principles, to which a certain correct- 
ness of feeling on moral subjects generally, dis- 
posed him to conform. Still, were his conduct 
weighed in an impartial balance, it would doubt- 
less appear that he is not to be wholly excused 
from the blame of provoking or aggravating by 
some unfilial acts, the very treatment of which 
he complained. 



38 MEMOIR OF BACON. 

From a state of indigence, his father had, at 
this time, risen to opulence. His farm had, by 
several purchases, become extensive and valua* 
ble, and a handsome amount of money, the earn- 
ings of a life of industry and thrift, been accumu- 
lated. After the labours of the season were com- 
pleted, Samuel fully disclosed to him the purpose 
he had formed in relation to an education ; and 
added such an explanation of his motives, as he 
hoped might secure his concurrence and aid. But 
he was wholly disappointed ; and was required, 
either to renounce the design, or no longer to look 
to the paternal roof for a home. He did not he- 
sitate to embrace the latter alternative ; and until 
within a very few years of his death, experienced 
the full effect of the hard prohibition. This was in 
September, 1802. He immediately became an 
exile from the scene of his childhood ; to which, 
he never afterwards returned permanently to 
reside. 

He again repaired to Leicester, and devoted 
a few weeks more to his classical preparations 
for admission in Harvard college. The instruc- 
ier in the Latin department, and the principal of 
the academy during his connexion with it, was 
Ebenezer Adams, A. M. a gentleman who has 
since held a very respectable professorship in 
Dartmouth college, and whom he never after- 
wards mentioned but with gratitude and venera- 
tion. The two following winters were spent in 
school-keeping in Rutland, a town twelve miles 






MEMOIR OF BACON. 39 

from Leicester, and in the same county. A few 
weeks in each season were also spared to assist 
his father in securing the harvest. The proceeds 
of his labour in both occupations went to defray 
the expenses of his residence at the academy. 
By this alternation of study and toil, he quali- 
fied himself, and applied for admission as a 
member of the freshman class in Harvard col- 
lege, in the autumn of 1804. He was received 
on a footing of equality with the other members 
of the class. But the great increase in expense 
in his new situation, was a source of distressing 
embarrassment, for which it was necessary to 
make immediate provision. The practice of the 
most rigid economy was from his early habits, 
no self-denial. He had travelled on foot with 
his bundle, from his native town to Cambridge; 
and had restricted his personal wants almost to 
the simple demands of nature. But below this 
point, it was in vain to think of reducing them. 
A comparatively expensive and constant resi- 
dence at the first literary institution on the con- 
tinent, for four years, the short winter vacations 
alone excepted, was to be provided for, or his 
long cherished intention, and the prospect to 
which it opened be absolutely abandoned. He 
acknowledges himself especially indebted to the 
kindness of Moses White, Esq. of Rutland*? 
" whose friendship," he says, u he experienced in 
many times of difficulty in prosecuting his stud- 
ies." But the nature and extent of this obligation 



40 MEMOIR OF BACO^ 

is not precisely explained. This gentleman ap- 
pears to have been his only efficient patron in 
this interesting struggle for intellectual advance- 
ment. To him he had only been known in the 
character of a laborious and faithful instructor; 
and probably his obscurity more than his want 
of merit, had restricted him to the friendship of 
a single individual, from whom any important 
assistance or encouragement could be obtained. 

Soon after his entrance in college, the pres- 
sure of his poverty overcame the reluctance of 
pride, and he applied for the birth of " Holden 
Freshman," which is a partially endowed scho- 
larship in the university. The services which 
the incumbent is expected to render as the con- 
dition of enjoying its privileges, are equally la- 
borious and humiliating. His business is to ring 
the bell for all the exercises of college, — a duty 
which recurs more than twelve times in the day; 
and to kindle and attend all the fires in the dif- 
ferent recitation rooms. He is uniformly occu- 
pied in these attentions, while the students are 
at table ; and all the perquisite connected with 
the place 3 is the scanty pittance which happens 
to escape the voracity of the hungry multitude. 

Having secured this situation, the reflection 
that it was the only condition on which he could 
enjoy the advantages of a public education, re- 
conciled him to its servile duties. His uniform 
good sense, and a prospective view of conse- 
quences, commonly prevailed over the sugges- 



MEMOIR OF BACON. 4>t 

tions of pride and the pressure of present incon- 
veniences, in most of the engagements of his 
life. In the cheerful attention which he gave to 
his humble duties, in the presence of several 
hundreds of his equals, and for their accommo- 
dation, this trait of his character shone with a 
very amiable lustre. This service it must, how- 
ever, be understood, does not necessarily prove 
detrimental to the progress of the individual who 
performs it. It often invigorates his health, by 
the exercise which it affords ; and occupies no 
greater proportion of his time, than he ought to 
devote to some form of relaxation from the se- 
verer pursuits of his class. It has not seldom 
happened that the scholar most distinguished in 
his class for his accuracy in mathematics and 
philosophy, is the Holden Freshman. The clas- 
sics are best relished, and best understood by a 
mind which unites a proper proportion of vigour 
with those free and easy sallies of imagination 
and feeling to which no habit contributes more, 
than the cultivated intercourse of polite society* 
An almost mechanical round of study and re* 
creation, if persisted in, may make a man of 
science, — but can hardly conduct to mediocrity 
in the more liberal arts. A gradual refinement 
of the taste which depends chiefly on its exer- 
cise, is always the measure of the student's pro- 
gress in these branches of learning. In this 
article of a liberal education, Mr. Bacon ever 
discovered a deficiency, which, is certainly to be 
6 : 



4S MEMOIR CI BACGS. 

attributed to the late period at which he engaged 
in its acquisition, and the unfavourable circum- 
stances which attended the prosecution of it 
rather than to any constitutional defect in the 
qualities of his mind. 

The colleges of New England, considered 
as the perfecting feature of the excellent system 
of popular instruction which obtains there, have 
ever been its boast, and one of its brightest orna- 
ments. Harvard College is the oldest institution 
of this kind, not only in that country, but in 
America. It was founded, and an appropria- 
tion of four hundred pounds made to it, by the 
general court, in 1636, sixteen years after the 
arrival of the first colonists in New England, 
and only six years subsequently to the first settle- 
ment of the province of Massachusetts bay. At 
that period, not only the surrounding country, 
but almost the very site of the college, was an 
uncultivated wilderness. The "governor, de- 
puty governor and magistrates" of the province, 
were constituted its original guardians, together 
with the " president for the time being, and the 
ministers of the congregational churches in the 
towns of Cambridge, Watertown, Charlestown, 
Boston, Roxbury and Dorchester." The only 
change in the overseers of the institution which 
took place at the Revolution, consisted in the 
substitution of the " lieutenant governor, council 
and senate of the commonwealth" for the time 
being, in the place of the " deputy governor and 



MEMOIR OF BACON. 43 

magistrates." By a still later change, the cler- 
ical and lay members of this board have been 
increased to fifteen of each order, with the power 
of filling vacancies in their own body. The 
direct application and management of the funds, 
together with the appointment of professors, and 
establishment of the standing laws of the institu- 
tion, is committed to a corporate body, consisting 
of seven persons, who are styled the " President 
and Fellows of Harvard College." The acts of 
this body are generally subject to the supervi- 
sion of the overseers. The immediate govern- 
ment and instruction of the college are adminis- 
tered by the president, professors, tutors, libra- 
rian and five proctors. 

The institution went into operation in 1638, 
two years before its proper organization took 
place. The original intention of the establish- 
ment was chiefly to educate young men for the 
church, in order to perpetuate in the new world, 
a learned and able ministry. The most liberal 
of its early benefactors was the Rev. John Har- 
vard, who died in Charlestown in 1638, leaving 
to it one half of his estate, amounting to seven 
hundred and seventy- nine pounds seventeen shil- 
lings and two pence sterling. To perpetuate the 
memory of his munificent bequest, the name of 
this benefactor was given to the institution. 

Its early presidents and professors were, with 
few exceptions, educated in England, and appear 
to have been eminently learned, pious and able 



44 MEMOIR OF BACON. 

men. The grants, donations and bequests subse- 
quently added to the original foundation, by the 
state, and by individuals in England and America, 
have been numerous and valuable : and it con- 
tinues to receive an annual appropriation of ten 
thousand dollars from the treasury of the com- 
monwealth. The edifices belonging to the col- 
lege are ten in number, besides the president's 
dwelling, and the medical hall in Boston ; and 
the property subject to the disposal of the cor- 
poration for the use of the institution, amounts 
to six hundred thousand dollars. 

On this very respectable foundation, are pro- 
fessorships in divinity, mathematics, natural and 
experimental philosophy, in Hebrew and the 
other oriental languages, in rhetoric and the belles 
letters, in metaphysics and ethics, in logic, natu- 
ral history, the ancient and modern languages, in 
moral philosophy and civil polity, and the applica- 
tion of the sciences to the useful arts. It has like- 
wise a lecturer on sacred criticism and ecclesias- 
tical history and polity. Several of these profes- 
sorships have been endowed by the munificence 
of individuals. On most of the branches enu- 
merated, the students have not only the advan- 
tage of hearing lectures, but are arraigned in 
regular recitations, under faithful instructors. 
The other features of the system of instruction 
common to all the colleges of New England, 
and which have given them a material advantage, 
in point of usefulness over most of the similar 



MEMOIR OF BACON. 45 

institutions in the southern states, consist in the 
exact classification of the students, the regular 
and uniform succession of their studies, the ex- 
clusion of resident undergraduates not regularly 
entered in the classes, and the definite period 
prescribed for the completion of the whole course- 

The exactness of the discipline, and the in- 
cessant diligence necessary to be observed by the 
students, in order to accomplish the established 
course of studies, tend to the same results. The 
best education which our country can afibrd may 
be accomplished at this college. 

For admission into the lowest class specific 
qualifications are prescribed, comprehending a 
good elementary knowledge of the Latin and 
Greek languages, and the mathematics. Four 
years 9 residence is necessary to complete the 
course. This term is perhaps as advantageously 
employed by American youths in the earlier 
stages of an education, as the same period could 
be done in any other institution in the world. The 
seminary may justly be considered as better adapt- 
ed to the age and circumstances of this country, 
than even the celebrated universities of Europe. 
While it has educated a large number of useful 
men, it has likewise formed to habits of study, and 
imparted a taste for knowledge, to many individ- 
uals who have afterwards become accomplished 
scholars, and shone with distinguished lustre in 
the different departments of life. The average 
number of undergraduates has, for the last ten 



46 MEMOIR OF BACOxN. 

years, not much varied from two hundred and fifty. 
Of fifteen presidents, who have in succession, been 
at the head of this institution, ten were clergy, 
men, and all of the congregational denomination. 
The religious character of the Seminary has al- 
ways been nearly identified with that of the com- 
munity to which it belongs. Both were for- 
merly strictly calvinistic. But during the last 
thirty years a change, almost imperceptible at 
first, and gradual in its progress, has been taking 
place in the principles of the people of that part 
of Massachusetts, from which its overseers, and 
professors are principally chosen ; and, as the Ne- 
cessary consequence, in the religious character of 
the college. A most portentous laxity of opin- 
ions in religion, tending to loosen its hold on the 
affections and the conscience, and depress the 
christian faith towards the degraded level of a 
mere human system, has succeeded to the exact 
definitions and unbending orthodoxy of the pure- 
tanical school. In the theological appendage 
to the institution, erected on a distinct foundation 
about five years ago, graduates from all the col- 
leges are admitted, and the indigent assisted by 
a charitable fund created for the purpose. 
The professors in this department are under- 
stood to be anti-trinitarian in their principles, 
and the course of instruction so adjusted, as to 
produce on the minds of the pupils an impres- 
sion decidedly favourable to the same opinions. 
The design of directlv influencing the stu- 



MEMOIR OF BACON. 47 

dents iii the formation of their theological theo- 
ries, is however disclaimed : and the method of 
instruction ostensibly pursued is, fo lay open 
the different religious systems, and explain the 
grounds on which they are severally held, and 
thus to direct the judgment to the adoption of 
the most natural and consistent. Admitting that 
this intention is honestly acted upon, it requires 
but a slight observation of the grounds on which 
young men take up their opinions on most sub- 
jects, especially in religion, to predict the uni- 
form result of this novel experiment. It sup- 
poses that all who enter the course, have their 
theological sentiments yet to form. And, from 
what influence is it conceivable that such minds 
will here receive their first and strongest bias ? 
Evidently from the authority of their instructers| 
although no such motive should be openly ap- 
plied. And every lesson in the course must, 
of consequence be suited, to produce more or 
less directly, an exact agreement in their general 
opinions, with those of their teachers. The 
authority which the latter must thus exercise 
over their minds, is naturally increased by the 
flattering appeal which the avowed system of 
instruction, pursued, makes to their youthful 
vanity, by referring to their premature and uniii- 
formed judgments, the decision of questions in 
theology on which they admit that nearly the 
whole christian church has been in error for 
nearly two thousand years ! As the advocates 



48 MEMOIR Of BACON* 

of this new and perilous theology have adopted 
no written confession of faith, it is difficult ex- 
actly to define their theological tenets, and very 
questionable whether they generally agree in the 
adoption of any particular system. They per- 
haps may be better characterised as entirely dis- 
senting from the faith generally held by the dif- 
ferent denominations of protectant christians, as 
orthodox, than as advancing any consistent 
scheme of their own. Their most distinguished 
writers deny the doctrines of the trinity in unity 
of the ever blessed God, — the supreme divinity 
of our Saviour, and the distinct personality of 
the Holy Ghost. They generally agree, like- 
wise, in rejecting the plenary inspiration of the 
Holy scriptures, the doctrine of the atonement, 
the original corruption of human nature, the ne- 
cessity of a radical change of the heart as a 
qualification for future happiness, the eternity of 
future punishment, and the direct influences of 
the divine Spirit on the minds of believers. 

The contrast which this enumeration of re- 
jected doctrines will present to the mind ac- 
quainted with the faith of the founders and prim- 
itive patrons of Harvard College, and that knows 
how to calculate the different effects of truth and 
error, cannot fail to awake the most poignant re- 
flections. May it impress a salutary lesson on 
those who are charged with providing for the fu- 
ture interests of any particular branch of the 
christian church ! 



MEMOIR OF BACON* 19 

The actual principles of a majority of the 
instructors, corporation, and overseers of the col- 
lege, were not at the period of Bacon's connex- 
ion with it, so fully disclosed nor so generally 
known, as at the present time. The discussion 
of religious subjects then formed a very small part 
of the business of any of the professors, and 
was almost wholly confined to a small private 
society of the students. The time of Mr. Ba- 
con was too much engrossed by literary pursuits, 
to suffer his thoughts to be much occupied by 
any other subjects ; and he appears to have passed 
the w r hole of this interesting period of his life, 
without any serious impressions in relation to his 
spiritual interests. From the low state of piety 
in the immediate circle to which his youth was 
confined, the want of competent and systematic 
instruction in religion at that time, and from 
an allowed and long continued neglect of the 
scriptures, he had for several years cherished a 
doubt as to the divine origin of the christian 
system. Being insensible of the natural repug- 
nance of the human mind to the truths of divine 
revelation, the absence of substantiatory evidence 
formed the only motive for its rejection, of which 
he was then conscious, He was even desirous 
for a time, to obtain such proofs of the truth of 
Christianity, as should confirm his belief of it. 
But he seldom resorted to the scriptures them- 
selves, for this evidence ; and, it is believed, 
rested rather in the speculations of his own 

7 



50 MEMOIR OF BACQN* 

thoughts, than weighed the evidences, stated in 
any approved defence of revealed religion. The 
most criminal indifference to so weighty an in- 
terest, constantly prevailed during the whole pro- 
gress of his miml J from a state of simple incerti- 
tude, to confirmed scepticism. Infidelity is, in 
the scriptures, condemned as a sin. And the 
justice of the denunciation of so terrible a 
penalty as everlasting death, against this in 
common with every other species of unbelief, 
is manifest from the fact, that the sceptic is al- 
ways chargeable either with such vices as make 
it his interest that the Bible should not be true ; 
or with the neglect of prayer to God for instruc- 
tion, and of that diligent examination of the 
evidences of religion, which the awful magnitude 
of the concern demands of him. In all this 
part of his conduct, he sins agaiust the dictates 
of religion, and his own natural impressions of 
duty ; and, if on no other grounds, is liable, on 
these alone, to the just judgment of Heaven 
against all who disbelieve the gospel. 

Mr. Bacon ever showed a peculiarly affec- 
tionate and interested regard for children. His 
most delightful occupation was that of instruct- 
ing, and training them for future usefulness, res- 
pectability and happiness. The arduous ser- 
vice of instructing school in the recess of col- 
lege duties, imposed by the slenderness of his 
finances, was from this constitutional trait, mate- 
rially mitigated. He appears, to have engaged 



MEMOIR OF BACON. 51 

in it with pleasure, alloyed only by the conside- 
ration of its being an impediment to the advance- 
nient of his literary pursuits. And he ever 
gained a point of no slight importance to a 
young man struggling into literary notice in that 
country, by uniformly finishing his winter's en- 
gagement in this business, with the general, and 
high approbation of his employers. The dili- 
gence and skill with which he conducted the bu- 
siness of instruction, were no more apparent in 
the progress of his pupils, than the kindness 
and benevolence of his deportment, in their 
strong attachment to his person. This latter 
circumstance could not fail of securing the friend- 
ship of the parents, and endearing his name in 
the grateful rememberance of many who have 
succeeded him on the stage of active life. 

By the proceeds of school-keeping in the 
winter, and the more ungrateful services attached 
to his " Holden Freshman" privilege, he defray- 
ed the expenses of his first year in college. At 
the commencement of the second, he applied for 
another servitorship, to which a similar privi- 
lege, with a less laborious duty, was attached. 
This consisted in waiting on the common table 
of the college, — a duty which he as cheerfully 
performed, as he availed himself of the petty 
privilege of serving himself afterwards with the 
mutilated fragments to which it entitled him. 

During the third year he retained the same 
college "privilege," and continued to perform 



5$ MEMOIR OF BACON. 

the same humiliating duties. The winter of this 
and the following year was spent in Sudbury, 
Middlesex county, in his accustomed employ- 
ment of school-keeping. His labours, privations 
and confinement, brought on, in 1806, a decline of 
health, which now threatened to interrupt his lit- 
erary pursuits, entirely, and even in a short time, 
to bring him to his grave. His complaints were 
of a complicated character, and some of the symp- 
toms alarming. His studies were still contin- 
ued ; nor was he in a situation to dispense with the 
trifling stipend to which his attentions as college 
waiter, entitled him. Indeed, during the whole 
of this year he neither relaxed in his studies, nor 
abated any of his accustomed labours. 

In the last year of his membership, yieldiu^ 
to the force of necessity, he again accomplished, 
with great injury to his health, and almost incredi- 
ble sufferings, his customary term of school-keep- 
ing. But the effort was two much. He returned 
in March to Cambridge, resumed his studies, and 
imprudently continued his residence there until 
May. It was in vain longer to struggle against his 
increasing and extreme debility, attended with 
some of the most alarming symptoms of a pulmo- 
nary consumption. He tore himself away from 
the scene of literary enchantment ; and was en- 
abled by the seasonable aid of some generous 
benefactor, to indulge himself for a few weeks, in 
several short excursions into the interior of New 
England. The change of objects, society, and 



MEMOIR OF BACON, 53 

air, and especially the release from the confine 
ment and studies of college, thus obtained, pro- 
duced a trifling abatement of the most dangerous 
symptoms of his complaint ; and he revisited 
Cambridge in June, to attend the customary ex- 
amination of the candidates for the first degree. 
This examination is conducted in the presence 
of the corporation, and overseers of the college, 
He appears to have passed it with reputation, 
His studies were however, not at present to be re- 
sumed. He accordingly spent the remainder of 
the summer and a part of the ensuing autumn, 
either in travelling, or in the society of his 
friends. The commencement in September, 
when his class-mates received their degrees, 
he was not able from his illness, to attend ; and 
continued several months, in a state of al- 
most hopeless debility. He was entirely sensi- 
ble of the dangerous character of the disorder, 
and of its almost certain termination in his dis- 
solution. For several months he expected the 
event with confidence ; but appears to have con- 
templated it with composure, and even indiffer- 
ence. The tremendous prospect scarcely extor- 
ted a single cry for mercy, or excited a thought 
for the fate of his soul. This alarming destitu- 
tion of feeling in an accountable and rational 
being, can easier be accounted for, than vindicated. 
His life had been uniformly, and in an uncom- 
mon degree, upright, admitting the correctness of 
the standard of duty which he had adoptedo 



5i MEMOIR OF BACON. 

He cheerfully recognised his obligations towards 
his fellow creatures, as far as their present con- 
venience was concerned ; and it was his pleasure 
to fulfil them ; but this was the limit of his bene- 
volence, and of his most extended notion even of 
religious duty. His vast obligations to God, and 
the Saviour, — obligations enforced by all the 
goodness concerned in his creation, and preser- 
vation, and all the grace displayed in his redemp- 
tion, and which are comprehended in the summa- 
ry injunctions of both departments of revelation, 
Ho love the Lord, with all the soul, the mind, and 
the strength/ — these obligations, even in the 
confident anticipation of an early call into the 
presence of his Creator, were wholly uufelt. Let 
it be recollected that Mr. Bacon at no period of 
his life, certainly not at the one now under re- 
view, was accustomed to restrain his reflections on 
other subjects, however grave and serious. On 
topics of this kind, from the natural sobriety of 
his character, and contemplative turn of his 
mind, his thoughts more readily dwelt than on 
any other. But they were seldom intently di- 
rected to the concerns of his soul ; and never, at 
this period, were excited to a state of anxiety or 
even of lively and interested inquiry, in re- 
spect of the future state of his soul. His case 
is a common one. Heath, to the prosperous man 
of the world, is usually little more than the idea 
of his ceasing to enjoy the pleasures of life : to 
the tender husband or parent, its most appalling 



MEMOIR OF EACON. 55 

idea is that of his widowed and orphan family ; 
to the rich, it is formidable as involving a new 
disposition, or the dissipation of his estate ; to 
the scholar, as the termination of his studies ; but 
to the languid and suffering victim of a slow 
decay, it often presents itself as opening an 
obscure and gloomy, but not unfriendly asylum* 
from the ravages of disease and pain. There is 
indeed, an apparent variety in the views with 
which these different characters regard the aw- 
ful close of their mortal existence. But suppose 
them uninfluenced by christian principles, and 
they agree in more respects than they differ* 
Death itself, and its consequences, as they affect 
the soul, are regarded as little more than a final 
sleep, of no importance except as it alters their 
relation to the things of the present life. The 
convincing power of the divine Spirit, by dis- 
covering to the mind the purity and extent of the 
law of God, by impressing on the heart a sense 
of his holiness and justice, and arousing the con- 
science from its sleep, and false hope from its 
dreams of bliss, can introduce a new and awaken- 
ing train of reflections in the breast not of the 
dying only, but of the living. Such a man can 
neither live nor die, without awful forebodings, 
and intolerable anguish of spirit, till he has some 
assurance that his condemnation is reversed, and 
his peace established in Heaven. Mr. Bacon 
was not so convinced, and saw the probable 
approach of the closing scene of his life without 



o6 MEMOIR Oh BACON. 

emotion. But his God was merciful. He had 
in reserve for him, blessings of which he had 
never even conceived the value. Towards the 
close of autumn the most formidable of his 
symptoms disappeared. His returning health 
was immediately laid under contribution, and 
even forestalled in his eagerness to enter on a 
course of professional study. His aim had from 
the first, been elevated, and he was governed in 
his choice of a pursuit in life, by the design of 
securing the greatest possible measure of influ- 
ence. His successful exertions for the improve- 
ment of his mind encouraged! him to engage in 
the study of a science in which an inferior genius 
must sink, and mere mediocrity of talents can 
never excel. 

He begun his course of law reading under 
J. B. Caldwell, Esq. of Rutland, a few miles only 
from the residence of his father. His interrup 
tions were frequent, and his progress for want o 
health, he considered very slow. From reasons 
which do not appear, he, in a few weeks, changed 
this situation for another in the same town, in the 
office of W. C. White, Esq. His progress un- 
der this gentleman, as appears from a certificate 
to which his signature is affixed, was highly cre- 
ditable to his industry and his talents. 

In July, 1809, he seems to have regained a 
comparatively comfortable state of health. In- 
duced by the hope of contributing by his pen to- 
wards defraying his current personal expenses,, 



: 



MEMOIR OF BACON. 57 

an object of which his circumstances never suf- 
fered him to lose sight, he removed to the town 
of Worcester, and undertook the management 
of the National iEgis, a respectable weekly 
news-paper of many years 9 standing. Here he 
continued to pursue the course of law reading on 
which he had entered, with his accustomed dili- 
gence, under the direction of Levi Lincoln, jr. 
Esq. at that time the lieutenant governor of the 
state. He was thus occupied until the ensuing 
winter. Meantime his unremitting application to 
the multiplied duties of his new situation, alone, 
seemed to prevent him from recovering entirely 
from the wound which he had inflicted by the 
same weapon, on an excellent constitution. In 
December following, he found himself still a val- 
etudinarian. To a system disordered as his was, 
and exhibiting a strong tendency to pectoral in- 
flammation, and haemorrhage, the severe effects of 
a northern winter, in order to be known, must be 
felt. A student subject to those painful symp- 
toms must possess more than common, indeed 
more than youthful fortitude, who will suffer 
any consideration of the superior advantages of 
a northern situation for acquiring professional 
qualifications, to dissuade him from an immediate 
removal to a softer climate. Mr. Bacon was 
now much at his ease, excepting the single article 
of health. His talents and industry had begun to 
commend him to the notice, and favourable opin- 
ion of a constantly widening circle of respecta- 
' 8 



58 MEMOIR OF BACON. 

ble individuals, on whose future patronage and 
friendship he might venture to calculate in his fu- 
ture advancement. He was by no means insen- 
sible to these persuasive motives for remaining 
in Massachusetts. But an infirm habit of body, 
and its depressing effects on the mind, were evils 
for the removal or mitigation of which he was 
willing to forego all these advantages ; and ac- 
cordingly yielded to the solicitations of an ac- 
quaintance, residing in Philadelphia, and then 
on a visit to Massachusetts, to accompany him 
on his return to Pennsylvania. 

His editorial career was too short, and the 
scene of it too circumscribed during his residence 
in Worcester, to admit a fair display of his tal- 
ents in that department of literary labour. From 
the general character of the articles from his pen, 
an opinion is to be formed rather favourable to 
his future promise, than to his actual achieve- 
ments, in that capacity. His productions evince 
some originality of thought, and considerable 
fertility of invention. They arc pointed and 
animated. But his ardour rises sometimes to 
intemperance of feeling; and his conceptions 
need chastening. He wrote with rapidity, and 
was very impatient of the labour of revising and 
correcting his composition. His principles on 
political and other related subjects, had been 
adopted with sincerity, and were avowed with 
candour : and he appears to have been ever 
ready to enter with interest into any designs 



* 



MEMOIR OF BACON, fl9 

Laving a benevolent aspect towards individuals 
or the community. His taste for general and 
polite literature, is apparent in the insertion not 
only of a large number of selected articles of 
this character, but of several of his own. Among 
the latter are several poetical scraps. 



00 MEMOIR OF BACON. 



CHAP. III. 



The recovery of his health was Mr. Bacon's 
chief inducement to visit Pennsylvania. He 
left the exact line of his future course to he 
marked out by subsequent events. The flatter- 
ing representations given by the individual who 
induced him to remove, of the advantages to be 
reaped from instructing a school in the city or 
vicinity of Philadelphia, in connexion with his 
own strong predilection for that business, had 
determined him on the measure. What was 
the nature of those representations is not stated 
in his notes ; but on his arrival in Philadelphia, 
he appears not to have realised his anticipations : 
and was not quite satisfied with the conduct of 
his too officious patron. He indeed derived from 
him little assistance which an entire stranger 
could not as well have afforded him. 

In this country, nothing can be more falla- 
cious than the hopes excited in young men by 
the promises of patronage. In whatever de- 
partment of life the proffered interest is to be 
exerted in their favour, the probable result is the 
same. The very constitution of our society ren- 
ders the expectation of rising under individual 
patronage most precarious. No individual is 
secure for a day of being able to retain the in- 
fluence over any portion of the community, 



i 



MEMOIR OF BACON. 6l 

which he believes himself to possess. He may, 
at any time, be required to struggle, — and 
struggle in vain, perhaps, with the popular cur- 
rent, to maintain his own interest. The con- 
nexion from which a young man may have ex- 
pected important benefits, so far from assisting, 
may thus come to prove the greatest detriment to 
his advancement. These remarks will be seen 
j to have a special application to the profession of 
the law. But they must be true as general 
maxims, so long as society is young in America, 
and probably as long as the republican principle 
remains unchanged in the government, and so 
largely pervades all the inferior departments of 
the community. Success in no honourable pur- 
suit can reasonably be anticipated on any other 
condition than that of the blessing of God, 
upon diligent, persevering, and upright indus- 
try. 

Mr. Bacon found himself on arriving in 
Philadelphia in December, 1809, in a very un- 
pleasant predicament. His small provision of 
cash was nearly out ; no opportunity of obtain- 
ing a school in that city presented itself: with 
the exception of the individual already named, 
he was in the midst of entire strangers : of his 
recommendations addressed to individuals he 
seems never to have made much use : his health 
was still infirm, and his spirits liable to extreme 
depression ; and, as the greatest calamity of all, he 
w r as a stranger to the consolations and resource? 



8# MEMOIR OF BACON. 

of religion, A cheerless infidelity had usurp- 
ed in his mind the place of a resigned con- 
fidence in the guardianship of Heaven; and con- 
verted any just impressions of the doctrine of a 
particular providence and the universality of the 
divine presence and agency, that might remain, 
into a source of dread, rather than of relief. 
But religion at this time afforded him about as 
little annoyance as peace. It was not the sub- 
ject which occupied his attention. But even at 
this period, when a strong impulse of natural 
affection was raised in his breast, his thoughts 
would immediately recur to the topics of conso- 
lation and hope, suggested by Christianity. Ac- 
cording to these would be all the expressions of 
his feelings, and the benedictions which they 
would prompt him to invoke upon the objects of 
his solicitude and love. A singular inconsis- 
tency ! which, however, proves that even the 
constitutional qualities of a sceptical miud, in or- 
der to be amiable, are obliged to appear to sym- 
bolize with the evangelical system. 

After a short stay in Philadelphia, he pro- 
ceeded on foot, and alone, into the interior of 
Pennsylvania, in search of a school. The win- 
ter had commenced, and on his arrival at Lan- 
caster, his strength was quite exhausted. Being 
unsuccessful in his application for a situation 
here, he proceeded on the last day of December, 
to York, which he had been induced to visit by 
the prospect of obtaining the situation of classical 



MEMOIR OF BACON, <53 

teacher in a seminary of that place, having the 
name of " York College." This place he knew 
to be vacant; and during his stay at Lancaster, 
had disposed his recommendations in such a 
form as to give him, he thought, a fair chance of 
succeeding in his application for it. Soon after 
his arrival, the trustees of the seminary were 
convened to consider his claims to the appoint- 
ment ; and after organising the session in due 
.form, " I was ushered," he states, u into the 
room, and was thus addressed by their Rev. 
President : 6 Sir, we have no doubt but you have 
a good education : the people of your country 
generally have ; but we wish to know how you 
can write/ I directly turned on my heel with a 
flush of indignation, saying to the gentlemen as 
I retired, that it was no part of my object in 
presenting myself there, to be examined in pen- 
manship, or spelling." On further inquiry he 
learnt that this college was then on the footing 
of the common schools, and that the situation for 
which he had applied, was little more than that 
of an abecedarian professorship. Without the 
means of travelling in the public stage, and too 
independent to be obliged to the generosity of 
strangers, he soon after left York, on foot, for 
Carlisle. The roads were bad, and the weather 
severe. He arrived in four days ; and expe- 
rienced the same ill success in the object of his 
search, which had uniformly befallen hip on this 
unpleasant excursion. Proceeding from Carlisle 



(54 MEMOIR OF BACON. 

to Shippensburg, he here found himself utterly 
exhausted, and seriously ill. He threw himself 
Into the stage, immediately, and returned back 
to Laueaster, as he then thought with all the 
comfortless indifference of infidelity, " to die/? 

His circumstances, and the brooding melan- 
choly of his temper, at this time, favoured the 
progress of disease in his system. But he was 
mercifully saved from the grave; and in a few 
weeks sufficiently recovered to renew his inqui- 
ries for a school. He availed himself of the 
recommendations with which he was furnished, 
and used the influence of all the friends which 
they procured him, and at length opened a 
school, in Lancaster, beginning with five scho- 
lars. Singular as the fact may be viewed, a few 
years hence, he encountered very formidable op- 
position in the pursuit of this humble object, and 
from gentlemen of the first respectability, on 
account of his supposed political principhs. 
Such was the strength of party feeling at this 
time in Pennsylvania. It had imparted a taint 
to the most upright and dignified minds, and 
with the virulence of a social pestilence, even 
infested the commerce of humble life. A few 
partisans alone, understood the true cause of 
the popular agitation. The loudest in the cla- 
mour could commonly give no rational account 
of the abstract principles which they so boiste- 
rously espoused, or of the motives of their own 
conduct. The same characteristic may be ap~ 



MEMOIR OF BACON. 65 

plied to almost every scene of violent political 
commotion in the nation. The existence of 
parties, and a high excitement of party zeal ap- 
pear to be evils inseparable in the present 
state of human nature, from the form of govern- 
ment to which, under Heaven, we are indebted 
for so many public and social blessings. 

In the useful but arduous sphere of labour 
into which Mr. Bacon had now entered, he re- 
mained until April, 1812. His scholars multi- 
plied in this period, to an hundred and fifty t 
nor, if his talents, his education, his predilec- 
tion for the business of instruction, and the ar- 
dour with which he prosecuted it, are considered, 
w r ill this increase be otherwise regarded than 
as their natural consequence. The pleasure re- 
sulting from perceiving the success of his exer- 
tions, and from promoting on a broad scale, the 
improvement of the young, was the chief motive 
which prompted to these extraordinary, and dis- 
interested labours. Not only were the proceeds 
of his school wholly expended on itself, but a 
debt of several hundred dollars annually con- 
tracted by its indefatigable principal for perfect- 
ing his system of instruction. He had in the 
same period, without any improper interference, 
united under his immediate superintendence, 
nearly all the different schools in the place. A 
library of five hundred volumes was purchased 
for their use ; the standard of education consider- 
ably raised, and the most efficient, and an nni- 
9 



66 MEMOIR OF BACOS* 

farm mode of instruction pursued in them all- 
Mr, Bacon had the pleasure of perceiving the 
unreasonable opposition experienced in the outset, 
from several gentlemen of great iuiluence, gra- 
dually, and entirely disappear, and but one 
sentiment of approbation aud satisfaction prevail 
among all classes of his employers. 

The trait which shone so advantageously in 
Mr. Bacon while occupied in these arduous la- 
bours, is fnlly illustrated, and some important 
maxims relative to the government of youth very 
happily conveyed, in a manuscript, dated in the 
camp, some years subsequently to the period 
under review. It appears to be the copy of a 
letter addressed to some person who had succeed- 
ed him in one of his schools, and applied for 
advice in relation to the system of discipline 
which Mr. Bacon had adopted with so much 
success. The appositeness of the remarks will 
excuse the anachronism of their introduction i 
this place. 

" Yours of the 8th instant needs no apology." 
u When you speak of my children, you touch a 
chord, which, like the harp of Memnon, needs 
but a breath, to make the vibrations long and 
deep." " My long intercourse with youth, and a 
long and habitual reciprocation of the relative 
duties, cares and pleasures, of teacher and pupil, 
have wrought a sort of second nature in me ; so 
much so, that the very term, ' youth/ is sacred, 
consecrated to innocence and purity," " For 



e 






MEMOIR OF BACON. 67 

these reasons you may be sure it must have beeu 
one amongst the many painful events of my life 
to leave my children of * * * * especially as 
that also may be considered the final period of 
my school-keeping. But, sir, you will allow 
me to say, that I think the difficulties, of which 
you complain, are rather imaginary than real* 
The same avenues, through which I approached, 
or perhaps, gained possession of their hearts, are 
still open for your access. — To every teacher, 
when he first enters on his duties, the very nature 
of youth sfeems to address itself, in the inimita- 
ble language of the Highland Bard, 

" O come you in peace here, or come you in war? T * 
If he enter his little dominion with all the terri- 
ble insignia of pedagogical domination displayed, 
he must gain his ground by inches. But if he 
4 come in peace/ if he come like a good angel, 
seeking after objects, on which to exercise his 
mercy, and pour forth the expressions of his 
good will, the youth of his care will throw them- 
selves into his arms, and give up to him their 
hearts, and even that wonderful faculty, the un- 
yielding will. In plain phrase, if he love them^ 
they will love him. Go on. Appear to be, and 
really be, anxious for their good ; labour for this 
object in word and in deed ; and rely on it, sir, 
they must be affected by it ; and while the prin- 
ciples of human nature remain unchanged, they 
Mill love you in return." 



6S MEMOIR OF BAUOX. 

It can hardly be necessary to state, that dur- 
ing this period, his professional studies were 
almost quite suspended. It was no part of his 
character to be capable of moderating the pur- 
suit of his main object, so as to leave him much 
leisure for attending to any other. His inqui 
ries on religion seem to have been nearly discon- 
tinued ; its ordinances either seldom frequented, 
or indifferently attended ; and the dominion of sin 
acquiring the most complete ascendancy over 
all the powers of his mind. 

His deportment was, however, strictly cor 
rect ; and although he suffered his own mind 
indolently to acquiesce in a vague system of 
deism, he seldom or never used cither argu- 
ment or persuasion with others, in order to in- 
duce any change of their religious principles. 
Severely sarcastical occasionally, in his repre- 
hension of the excrescences which had in different 
forms, grown out of the morbid state of particular 
branches of the christian community, his con* 
viction, if not of the sacredness, yet of the util- 
ity of the moral principles of Christianity itself, 
effectually restrained him from openly assailing 
the system ; or, as far as appears, of wishing 
for its general rejection. He even enforced those 
precepts constantly on the minds of the youths 
under his care. Although his candour at a sub- 
sequent period, brought him to a confession of 
having entertained all the negative characteris- 
tics of infidelity ; it is but too safe a presumption 



s 



MEMOIR OF BACON. 6.9 

that thousands who pass themselves for the 
friends of the christian religion, are inwardly 
infected with an equal degree of the same tor- 
pid infidelity. To many of his intimate asso- 
ciates at this time, the lurking poison of his 
doubts and disbelief in relation to our holy re- 
ligion, was undiscovered. 

In the summer of 1810, his spirits were re- 
duced to the lowest state of depression, in con- 
sequence of bodily indisposition, and the pres- 
sure of incessant and increasing cares, and a full 
conviction of the vanity of worldly expectations ; 
to all which may be added the constant annoy- 
ance of a burdened conscience. The unhappi- 
ness experienced from this latter cause, was felt, 
but not understood. He found himself wretched 
in the extreme, and existence itself an intolerable 
burden. He knew of no remedy : and at one 
period fully resolved on hazarding the awful ex- 
periment of suicide. But the hand of God ar- 
rested him, and prevented the execution of his 
purpose. 

From May to December, of the same year, 
he edited a small weekly paper, denominated the 
u Hive," which had some years previously, been 
published in the same place ; and which, with 
considerable exertion, he revived, to experience 
in a few months, a similar doom, for want of pa- 
tronage. Its character was miscellaneous, and 
the editorial articles relate chiefly to subjects 






70 MEMOIR OF BACON. 

which his own pursuits and studies had render- 
ed familiar to his thoughts. 

Of this publication, Mr. Bacon remarks, 
"It never obtained a very extensive patronage, 
perhaps did not deserve it." Its pages exhibited 
not so properly a variety, as a medley of articles ; 
of which, far the largest proportion were inser- 
ted rather for the amusement than edification of 
their readers. Nearly one half of these were 
fugitive pieces from Mr. Bacon's own pen. 
They are indeed neither marked with chasteness 
of style, nor evince much refinement of taste in 
their author ; but they bear ample testimony to 
his industry, the fertility of his invention, and 
the captivatiug vivacity of his imagination. 
The journal contains several poetical produc- 
tions accompanied with copious notes ; which 
discover a more than ordinary talent for this 
species of composition, and an extensive but 
not very accurate jicquaiiitance with ancient and 
modern classical literature. His pieces, with 
scarcely an exception, were despatched to 
press in an unfinished state, both in regard to the 
treatment of their subjects, and the character of 
their phraseology ; and show rather what the 
writer might have accomplished in this species 
of authorship, with sufficient leisure and care, 
than actually lay the foundation for any lasting 
literary reputation. Mr. Bacon's productions 
are distinguished from those of all the occasion- 
al contributors to his miscellany, by their ori~ 



MEMOIR OF BACON.- 7'i 

ginality, and a certain redundancy of broken 
classical imagery: hut the most correct, perhaps 
the ablest pieces, were from the pens of some 
of his correspondents.* 

'Mr, Bacon's labours in Lancaster were 
neither appreciated nor rewarded as they deser- 
ved to be. But as he had enjoyed signal suc- 
cess, and could contemplate his exertions with a 
high degree of satisfaction, he was too well plea- 
sed with the situation to seek for any other. In 
March, 1812, he unexpectedly received a polite 
and urgent invitation from the trustees of the 
school already mentioned under the name of 
York College; to remove, and take charge of that 
Institution. This call, he soon resolved to ac- 
cept, on the condition of receiving a sufficient 
advance of money from the trustees, to pay off the 
debts incurred on account of his schools in Lan- 
caster. The condition was complied with on the 
part of the trustees, without hesitation, and be- 
accordingly resigned his charge, and repaired to 
York, on the first of April. 

By the suggestion of a young officer- of Ma- 
rines, at that time stationed at Lancaster, he had 
several months previously, sent in to the Execu- 
tive an application for a commission in the same 
corps. Of the success of this application he 
never entertained but little expectation ; and at 
the time of making bis engagement with the 

" See Appendix, Note IV. 



7# MEMOIR OF BACON. 

trustees of the York academy, the circumstance 
of the application scarcely occurred to his 
thoughts. But when on the point of departing to 
fulfil his engagement at York, he was surprised 
with the arrival of a commission. The appoint- 
ment was to a second lieutenancy in the marine 
corps. Having written to the commanding 
officer of the corps, an account of his situation, 
he proceeded directly to York, and undertook 
the charge to w r hich he had engaged himself; 
and in a few days after, received from Washing- 
ton a furlough for six months. His devotion to 
the interests of the school during this period, 
was entire ; and his success equal -to that which 
had distinguished his former lahours. On the 
expiration of his furlough, in October, he repair- 
ed to Washington, and joined his corps. The 
enthusiasm of his character was adapted to a 
military life ; and a quick and operative sense 
of honour, hy which his feelings were uniformly 
distinguished, was likely to ensure a faithful 
and prompt discharge even of the most laborious 
and perilous services. He shortly acquired a 
good practical knowledge of the military art, as 
far as the duties of his station required ; and 
was eager for a more active participation in the 
labours and hazards of war than the appointment 
of the service seemed likely soon to allot to him* 

In March, 1813, he was ordered, by his own 
request, from Washington to New York, to take 
charge of the guard of the Argus Sloop of war, 



MEMOIR OF BACON. 73 

then lying in that harbour. By some oversight 
the same command had been previously given 
to an officer of inferior rank ; and he remained 
in quarters, at New York, until the ensuing Au- 
gust. He was now recalled to Washington, and 
on the first of September, received the appoint- 
ment of quarter -master of the corps, which he 
accepted. In this capacity he continued to serve 
eighteen months, when he resigned the appoint- 
ment, and was reinstated in the rank to which 
the regular course of promotion entitled him* 
Destitute of that inward fear of Grod, and 
that principle of obedience to his authority, 
which alone can render the soul superior to the ty- 
rannicallawsofa perverted and spurious honour; 
and a stranger to the power of divine grace in 
restraining the inordinate dominion of the pas- 
sions, he was easily seduced by pride and re- 
sentment, to engage in a duel with an officer of 
the same corps, on the pretext of terminating 
some trivial disagreement. His antagonist in 
this rash and criminal enterprise, had formerly 
been one of his most intimate and confidential 
friends, to whom he had once regarded himself as 
under very particular obligations ! Which of the 
parties was the aggressor and deserved the seve- 
rest reprehension, in the quarrel which led to this 
affair, it is no part of the writer's object, and 
cannot be that of the christian reader, to inquire 
Suffice it to say, that Mr. Bacon lived to express 
the deepest abhorrence of the unnatural act, and to 

10 



74? MEMOIR OF BACOIw 

regard the individual who participated with him 
in the sin and the peril of it, with a feeling of 
affection and respect, which all the blood that 
has ever flowed in voluntary assassinations could 
never inspire. The wretchedness of a common 
apostacy, and the blood of an universal atone- 
ment, to the faith of a christian, cannot fail to 
present such considerations as must bind him 
with the tie of essential brotherhood to every 
individual of his species. On the basis of this 
sublime view of the mutual relations of men, 
was Mr. Bacon's benevolence for all his fellow- 
men, eventually established. Under the influence 
of this spirit, suppose him to receive an injury 
which should directly affect his character. Still, 
it must be a brother who inflicted it ; and whom, 
because he was his brother, it would be impos- 
sible for him to injure in return. Mr. Bacon's 
subsequent detestation of the practice of duelling 
was likewise founded on the knowledge which 
faith had revealed to him of the strictness and 
purity of God's holy laws, and the < exceeding 
sinfulness of sin.' In an interview which the 
writer enjoyed with him a very few months be- 
fore his death, the subject of duelling, with spe- 
cial reference to his own case, was casually ad- 
verted to in the conversation. He remarked, very 
seriously, that " duelling is unquestionably mur- 
derous : but, do not let us suppose duellists and 
assassins are the only murderers. Where is the 
man that is not, in the sight of God, chargeable 



MEMOIR OF BACON. 7^ 

with all that is essential to that and every other 
abomination which can be named ? In his judg- 
ment, we are all by nature much nearer a level 
than we are apt to suppose." The enlightened 
christian will be able to appreciate the real hu- 
mility of these sentiments, The feeling w hich 
prompted them was an abhorrence of all iniqui- 
ty too absolute to admit of his restricting the 
condemnation of it to any particular act of his 
own, or any one species of sins in general. In 
the affair alluded to, he received a severe wound 
in the thigh, which disabled him from active duty 
for several weeks. 

On the last day of May, 1814, he married 
Miss Anna Mary, the daughter of Jacob Bar- 
jiitz, Esq. of York, in Pennsylvania, to whom 
he had been for more than two years, very 
tenderly attached. This union was produc- 
tive of much happiness to both the parties, dur- 
ing its very brief continuance ; and to the wi- 
dowed survivor, was the occasion of an infinite 
benefit, with which the highest anticipations of 
mere earthly felicity, are unworthy of a com- 
parison. " This event," he writes, " produced 
new feelings, and new principles of action. I 
was deeply interested in the happiness of my wife; 
and was almost compelled to pray. This prac- 
tice I seldom afterwards omitted ; and came 
by degrees to believe in the holy scriptures. 
Deistical objections had suddenly and unaccoun- 
tably ceased to trouble me, and I read my long 



76 MEMOIR OF BACON. 

neglected Bible with assiduity and the deepest in- 
terest. But/' he observes, in continuation, " after 
all, I confess that I had no religion, and had no 
serious intention of seeking it. I did not, in- 
deed, think a change of heart necessary." 

All this, perhaps, can be justly resolved into 
the operation of mere natural affection. His 
marriage had given him an interest in an object 
for whose happiness his benevolence was more 
distinctly called into exercise than it had ever 
been before, for any other. The blessing of a 
superior Power was earnestly desired, on her ac- 
count ; but on the dreary plan of mere deism, 
could be sought with no possibility of being ob- 
tained. He began now to be sincerely willing 
that the scriptures, and the christian scheme, 
should be true, — and little more was necessary 
in order to open his eyes upon the evidence 
which proves them so. This process of feeling 
and reasoning, the result of which ultimately 
proved so salutary, however it may be explain- 
ed on mere natural principles, was neverthe- 
less conducted by the invisible finger of that 
God, who is the author of nature itself, aud the 
sovereign disposer of all subordinate causes. 
Many of his prejudices against Christianity con- 
tinued, even while he admitted the truth of the 
system. 

The whole summer of 1814, Lieut. Bacon 
was detained at Washington. On the 18th of 
June, h?3 was promoted to a captaincy in his 






MEMOIR OF BACON. 77 

corps. Except the few weeks during which the 
English forces remained on the waters of the 
Chesapeake, his division of the corps was not 
called out on active duty. This season of leisure 
afforded him opportunity to renew the study of 
the law ; of which he very industriously avail- 
ed himself. His marriage seems to have social- 
ised his feelings, by rousing him from that state 
of morbid melancholy into which his mind in soli- 
tude, was accustomed to subside. As the effect of 
this improved habit of feeling, he oftener in the 
absence of his wife, repaired to church on Sun- 
days, read the scriptures, and attended to other 
religious duties : — his pride and infidelity in the 
form of a dark and sickly despondency of tem- 
per, having formerly stood much in the way of 
these observances* 

On the 9th of January, 1815, he was admit- 
ted to the bar, in Washington, having some 
months previously, entered himself as a student 
in the office of J. Law, Esq. of this city. His 
qualifications were considered respectable. 

Soon afterwards he was taken suddenly and 
seriously ill : and from solitude, the expectat- 
ion of death, and a conscious want of prepar- 
ation for the event, his mind became more com- 
pletely awakened to the impressions of religion 
than it had been since the days of his childhood. 
H&read the scriptures with increased avidity and 
interest, and prayed with a fervour and affection 



To MEMOIR OF BACOK. 

unfelt before.* This show of piety continued no 
longer than its cause lasted. He found no diffi- 
culty, on recovering his health, to resume his 
former habit of indifference. It was however 
the preposterous indifference of a mind which 
indolently acquiesced in the truth of Christianity. 
But he never afterwards apostatised to deism. 

Mr. Bacon's mind was susceptible in a very 
unusual degree, to the impressions of kindness ; 
and no feeling could be more easily inspired in 
it than gratitude. This sentiment sometimes took 
a decidedly religious cast, whenever he happen- 
ed to see the connexion of his happiness or his 
success in life, with an overruling providence. 

The birth of his son in the montli of March, 
was an event well suited to call into strong action 
this constitutional feeling of his mind ; and pro- 
duced a fervent acknowledgment of the unme- 
rited goodness of God, and a general purpose of 
living more obediently to his commands. But 
this pious transport was only the gush of a mere, 
natural affection, and soon spent itself. 

About the same time, and while attached to 
the marine service, he was licensed to practise 
law in the courts of York county, in Pennsylva- 
nia. On the resignation of his staff appoint- 
ment, in May, he repaired to York, on the re- 
cruiting service ; and on the first of August, 
opened an Attorney's office in that place. The 

* See Appendix, Note V. 



MEMOIR OF BACON. 79 

multiplication, and perhaps the very nature of 
his labours in this new profession, proved highly 
detrimental to his better interests. He soon be- 
came inflamed with the desire of distinction 
and emolument, and entangled with a host of 
cares, which, to a mind and temper like his, 
were especially vexatious ; and all together, ef- 
fectually diverted his thoughts from the pursuits 
of religion. 

But Heaven was preparing a shaft to go 
through his soul, and remind him, by the seve- 
rest pang it had ever inflicted, of the precarious 
nature of his best earthly enjoyments. His 
youthful and amiable wife had nearly recovered 
her accustomed health, when she became sud- 
denly ill of a nervous complaint, attended with 
very alarming symptoms. Medicine was baffled. 
Hope hung trembling over the sinking patient, 
for a few days; and reluctantly quitting its 
charge, left the agonising husband to watch her 
last convulsions. He saw her expire on the 
28th of August, 1815. The circumstances of 
her death were such as afterwards filled him 
with a melancholy pleasure to recollect theme 
The strength of her faith, and the vigour of her 
hopes afforded her not only an easy conquest of 
the last enemy, but a sublime triumph over all his 
terrors. But the disconsolate husband was at 
I the time overwhelmed with unutterable distress. 
He indeed, saw in the stroke, the hand of Omnipo- 
tence, and trembled. But he was neither humbled 



80 MEMOIR OF BACOIC* 

under it, nor constrained to withdraw his hearty 
nor his confidence, from the world. The. wound 
in a few weeks ceased to bleed : he resumed his 
accustomed avocations; and surrendered him- 
self, as before, to the mingled torrent of pas- 
sions and cares which make up the busy life of 
a man of the world. 

The active ardour with which Mr. Bacon 
prosecuted his professional and other labours, 
would be very inadequately represented, by call- 
ing him merely industrious. His legal know- 
ledge was never profound : but that, together 
with all his other acquirements, was eminently 
adapted to an object of which he seems never to 
have lost sight, — to attain to eminence, as au 
efficient practical character. This purpose was 
partly the result of the constitutional impetuosity 
of his feelings, and the benevolence of his heart, 
which led him naturally, to connect the design 
of practical usefulness with all his plans ; and 
partly, was the dictate of dispassionate and 
sound judgment. Mr Bacon knew himself to 
be constitutionally better fitted for action than 
study; and very properly judged that his most 
strenuous efforts, at this period of his life, to 
become accurately learned in the theory of his 
profession, would be baffled by those very quali- 
ties which, with due cultivation, might render 
him eminently useful as a practitioner. He 
rapidly advanced in his profession ; and soon 
acquired an extensive practice. He was hide 



MEMOIR OF BACON. 81 

fatigable in liis attention to the business put into 
his hands ; and, in no known instance, depart- 
ed from that unbending line of integrity which* 
through life, he most scrupulously observed. 
His habitual generosity was exercised to the 
same liberal extent, as in the more circumscribed 
sphere which he had formerly held. "From 
his papers which have come to my hands since 
his decease," writes an intimate friend, " I have 
found, that in several instances where his poor 
clients were pressed, he had advanced consider- 
able sums to relieve them without a hope of ever 
being repaid." To the same pen the writer is 
likewise indebted for the additional information, 
that u Mr. Bacon not only spoke with great flu- 
ency, but of fen with eloquence, at the bar; and 
even in the dry details of a., law-speech, he ex- 
hibited a richness and exuberance of mind that 
always excited interest." 

Mr. Bacon at this period enjoyed a healthy 
habit of body, and a comparatively equable tem- 
perament of mind ; possessed a good classical and 
legal education ; a moral character, in the eye of 
the world, untarnished : and such an experimen- 
tal acquaintance with the world, as the daily in- 
tercourse of several years with men of every grade 
and description, was able to impart. Such quali- 
fications soon gave him a commanding influence 
in the community of which he was now a member* 
When he resigned his commission as captain 
of marines, in November, 1815, he had received 
11 



82 MEMOIR OF BACOX, 

the appointment of deputy attorney of the Uni- 
ted States district court, for York and Adauis, 
in Pennsylvania ; and was soon after elected 
Major of a regiment of the Militia. His exer- 
tions for improving the organization and disci- 
pline of the militia, during the three years of 
his residence in York, were unremitting and suc- 
cessful. His situation in short, united almost 
every ingredient which enters into the world's 
definition of felicity ; and to the mind which aspires 
after no better happiness than results from the 
most propitious external circumstances, it must 
have been enviable. But it is necessary only to 
appeal to the experience of every reader, in or- 
der to convey to him the best idea of that cheer- 
less, and distressing vacuity of mind, which still 
preyed on his internal peace. He was too hon- 
est not to be conscious of the secret disgust which 
he felt towards the very things which he was re- 
solved should make him happy. He had al- 
ways aimed to possess the best gifts of the world, 
and at this time, could conceive of nothing bet- 
ter. But he was not happy. 




MEMOIR OF BACON. 83 



CHAP. IV. 

No speculation could be wilder or more ad- 
venturous, than to attempt to trace, in the ever 
varying sensations of a soul so susceptible and 
so active as Mr. Bacoi/s, the precise method 
observed by the divine Spirit in producing a 
proper conviction of sin, and * renewing his mind 
after the image of Christ/ Omniscience alone 
can interpret all the minute actings of the affec- 
tions ; and separate from the compound of pas- 
sion, imagination, and mere animal sensations, 
the operations of divine grace. But the Spirit 
of God seldom, or never converts the soul of an 
adult sinner, without, in some stage of the work 
exciting strong emotions : and, as incidents and 
circumstances make up the tissue of every man*s 
life, they come necessarily to be associated with the 
divine work itself. Still, the change itself which 
the scriptures so fully describe, and so expressly 
pronounce to be an indispensable qualification 
for salvation, is of the most simple character ; 
and essentially distinct from all attendant cir- 
cumstances. The seat of it is in the moral fa- 
culties of the mind ; and it essentially consists 
in a supernatural translation of the affections 
from self, sin, and the world ; and their steady 
and confirmed attachment to holiness, and to 
God. Every heir of life has experienced this 



84 MEMOIR OF BACOIS. 

change ; and evinces its reality by a conduct 
which a rational man would naturally expect 
him to exhibit. He separates himself from the 
pursuit of the lusts, vanities, and pomps of life, 
and whatever else the change of his affections has 
rendered distasteful and odious ; and follows af- 
ter righteousness, peace, temperance, purity, 
faith, Heaven, — all things, in short, which the 
Spirit of God has taught him supremely to love 
and value. Where these substantial proofs of 
conversion are found, — admit that the man is de- 
ceived in many of his own feelings ; admit that he 
is weak, ignorant, or superstitious ; that his imagi- 
nation illudes him with its extravagant and vision- 
ary creations : his weaknesses are no doubt to be 
pitied, — but, who is authorised to pronounce him 
merely because weak or visionary, devoid of the 
grace of life ? A cloud floating in our atmos- 
phere, may obscure the face of the sun ; but can- 
not blot it from the system : its reflection may be 
broken and ruffled in the agitated pool ; while the 
luminary itself holds its orbit undisturbed, and 
pours a steady light. Grace may reign in the 
soul, and govern the life, while a superstitious 
imagination deforms the heavenly principle, and 
ignorance clouds the understanding which it per- 
vades. 

The mysterious grace of God which was soon 
to make of the subject of this narrative, a distin- 
guished* vessel of mercy/ had, unperceived and 
even without his distinct concurrence, wrought 



MEMOIR OF BACON. §5 

a gradual preparation in his mind for the 
thorough renewal which followed. His feelings 
were sooner excited, and his thoughts more ea- 
sily fixed, by the truths of religion, than for- 
merly. He visited his native place for the last 
time, in September, 181 6 : saw in many of his for- 
mer acquaintances, a very manifest change of reli- 
gious character ; and seems to have been particu- 
larly struck with the alteration wrought by the 
same cause, in the domestic scene. His aged fa- 
ther was drawing to the close of his protracted 
pilgrimage in a devout and peaceful frame, — the 
manifest offspring of a living faith in his Redeem- 
er ; and appeared to derive such a sublime delight 
from communion with his God,, and from the va- 
rious exercises of his worship and praise, as ar- 
rested the attention, and excited some serious re- 
flections in the mind of Samuel. On the night 
succeeding the second day of his homeward jour- 
ney, he had retired to his chamber in health, and 
enjoyed an unusual redundancy of animal spirits. 
The world and its pursuits presented themselves 
to his imagination in their most attractive forms. 
He dwelt upon his own prospects in life with 
delightful anticipations, and w r as employing his 
thoughts in arranging plans of future advance- 
ment and emolument. By a strange bodily 
sensation, the cause of which does not very 
plainly appear, the vision was annihilated in a 
moment ; and he fully believed himself in the 
agonies of death. His respiration was burden- 



86 MEMOIR OF BACON. 

ed almost to suffocation; and a paroxysm of 
exhaustion, distress and convulsions, seized upon 
the vital parts of the system, and seemed to his 
affrighted imagination, to threaten immediate 
dissolution. He then felt his unfitness to die, 
and could contemplate in the eternity before him, 
only a justly offended God, and a world of 
dreadful retribution. His cries were raised in 
an agony of despair and terror, to the burning 
throne : but they were offered without faith, 
and procured him no relief. He felt himself, to 
employ his own language, " withering under the 
touch of death," and perishing, without an hour's 
reprieve, or a ray of hope. He petitioned for a 
day, — for a few hours, only, of respite, from the 
instant doom which he felt impending; and 
tacitly resolved, with the solemnity of a religious 
vow, to consecrate the precious moments which 
should be afforded, wholly to the preparation 
of his wretched soul for judgment. Whether 
the imagination, or some physical affection be 
supposed the principal cause of this distressing 
paroxysm, its effects were the same. The ex- 
pectation of immediate death could not have 
been more strongly impressed by any cause 
whatever : and the event itself could scarcely 
have increased his alarm and terror. On ob- 
taining relief, he ratified his resolutions by a 
deliberate promise to seek the Lord's favour 
until he obtained it. The reader, but moderately 
skilled in the deceitfulness of his own heart, has 






MEMOIR OF BACON. ST 

already anticipated the fate of resolutions origi- 
nating as these did. Mr. Bacon spent the ensu- 
ing day thoughtfully. He more than once ad- 
dressed a forced petition to Heaven. The im- 
pression daily got fainter; till, on his arrival in 
Philadelphia, he was the same thoughtless 
worldling as before. 

His health was again affected. A strong 
temptation to violate the Sabbath by travelling 
unnecessarily, occurred at the same time, and en- 
snared him. His conscience was again arous- 
ed, and, assisted in its rebukes by the recollec- 
tion of vows so recently violated, stung him to a 
transport of mental agony little short of mad- 
ness. Often did he check the reins of his horse, 
half resolved to proceed no further. An habi- 
tual seriousness rested on his mind from this 
time, until, with his returning health he suffered 
himself to be overwhelmed with the cares of busi- 
ness. Still, he continued to read the scrip- 
tures, but lost that earnest spirit of inquiry 
which on the occasions of his late alarm, so en- 
tirely occupied his mind. He likewise found 
all his convictions and purposes, too inoperative 
to engage him in a course of habitual prayer. 
He did not, for several weeks, repeat even the 
Lord's prayer. In this one trait, the difference, 
how marked ! between the unconverted formalist, 
and the humble believer. ' Will the hypocrite 
always call upon God V is an interrogative, 
which, in the answer it dictates, explains the 



88 StEMOIll OF BACOK. 

true cause of Mr. Bacon's uniformly declin- 
ing seriousness, and the failure of bis best pur- 
poses and attempts in religion. Without Christ, 
apprehended and formed in the soul by a living 
faith, the sinner can do nothing. Armed with the 
might of a divine Helper, the weakest believer 
is enabled to adhere with general and persever- 
ing consistency to the sincere purpose which he 
ventured, with much trembling, and deep self- 
distrust, to conceive before his God. The very 
consciousness of his insufficiency constrains him 
incessantly to cry to his Saviour for more grace* 
Thus is secured his steady attendance on this vi- 
tal exercise of the christian. And his prayer is 
heard. He is never left without that supply of 
the Spirit of grace which answers his present 
need, aud enables him to render a consistent, 
however imperfect, an obedience to the com- 
mands of Christ. Mr. Bacon had not embraced, 
and did not confide in the promise, 4 my grace 
shall be sufficient for thee/ He was according- 
ly left, to learn by repeated and aggravated re- 
lapses, his own insufficiency. Here is the point 
too, which very many who commence a religious 
course, never pass : and either rest, through life, 
in around of mechanical and heartless services ; 
or, as more commonly happens, utterly aposta- 
tise from the pursuit of religion, and become 
its worst opposers. 

The fear of death shortly invaded him again ; 
excited a guilty conscience, to discharge its 



MEMOIR OF BACON. 89 

dreadful office with still bitterer criminations, 
and more alarming anticipations than before ; 
and after many hours of fruitless supplication, 
subsided into a tranquil calm of the soul. This 
visitation of the hand of God he was not able 
to forget entirely. He gave, from this period, a 
more constant attendance on preaching; read 
the Bible, prayed, bought religious books, and 
without discovering his intention to any one, was 
disposed to make religion a very serious matter 
both of inquiry and practice. He still appears 
to have been a stranger to Jesus Christ, the 
source and channel, of all efficient spiritual in- 
fluences. The word sown in his heart was still 
on ' the stony ground where it had not much depth 
of earth f and however promising in appearance, 
was without root, and < in the hour of temptation* 
withered away/ He, indeed, was convinced that 
he had not attained to a state of safety ; but, for a 
short time had too much confidence in the effica- 
cy of his own dead works " performed without 
grace" to advance him to that desirable state, to 
relinquish his dependence on them, and trust 
alone, in the righteousness of Christ, With the 
root of self-righteousness still vigorous in his 
heart, was united its inseparable concomitant, 
great ignorance of the way of salvation, by faith. 
This indeed, is a mystery which can be fully 
learnt only by experience. But Mr. Bacon 
appears not to have possessed even that theoret- 
ical knowledge of the important doctrine which 
43 



90 MEMOIR OF BACON. 

many persons, as destitute of saving faith as 
himself, have nevertheless, acquired. While 
he continued to acquit himself, with tolerahle 
regularity, in the duties to which he was now 
addicted, his conscience slumbered ; and a vague 
hope of finally escaping the wrath of God, and 
obtaining his favour, held him fast in its delusion. 
But God again suffered him to fall by a train of 
temptations, an easy prey to sins, which he 
could not reconcile with the character even of 
a sincere and earnest inquirer in religion. He 
had been invited by his gay associates, to unite 
with them in a scene of fashionable dissipation; 
and so utterly destitute of firmness to withstand 
the solicitation did he find himself, that he yield 
ed an almost unhesitating compliance. While 
participating in this frivolous amusement, all 
serious reflection was stifled ; and he was con- 
scious of no other restraint on the levity of his 
feelings, than that which the laws of decency 
and custom impose. He was at this time, in 
Lancaster. On his return to York, the next 
day, he had leisure to review his conduct, in 
the black shade thrown over it by the recollec- 
tion of violated resolutions and vows, and the con- 
sciousuess of having offered a direct resistance 
to the suggestions of the divine Spirit, and of 
violating his own knowledge and convictions of 
duty. He perceived that he had not only been 
overcome by the temptation, but vanquished al- 
most without an opposing struggle, His reflec- 



MEMOIR OF BACON. 91 

lions were distracting ; and hurried him into a state 
of mind but little short of despair. He dared not 
even pray for forgiveness. Either the agitation 
of his thoughts,, or real indisposition, impressed 
strongly on his imagination the expectation of 
sudden death. His health again became sensibly 
affected; and he ventured to pray only for 
strength to reach home, and permission to die 
in the midst of his friends. He arrived. But his 
spirit found no rest : it had received a wound, 
which every recollection aggravated, and all his 
attempts to heal were worse than idle. The hand 
of the Almighty had inflicted it, and the remedy 
was only with himself. He read the scriptures, 
prayed, wept, but to no purpose. He was even 
tempted to drown his anguish in intoxication : 
but God mercifully overruled the intention. His 
imagination was still full of the apprehension of 
a sudden death — and while he repressed the 
open expression of his feelings, he more than once 
took a final leave as he supposed, of his child, 
and his friends. His inward anguish and alarm 
so far predominated as to overcome, at length, the 
pride of heart which had hitherto restrained him 
from availing himself of the counsel and society 
of his pastor and christian friends. It cost him 
even now, a severe struggle to withdraw himself 
from a number of his customary associates, 
and go and unbosom himself to the clergyman on 
whose ministry he attended. In this interview, 
to employ his own phraseology, " he cried and 



93 MEMOIR OF BACON. 

roared aloud :" and it was not until he had freely 
given vent to the strongest of his feelings, that he 
could utter his errand in intelligible language. 
The clergyman found it needful to appease the 
violent agitation of his mind ; and afterwards 
imparted to him a variety of counsel ; the purport 
of all which seems to have fallen much short of 
Mr. Bacon's expectations : and he returned dis- 
appointed and dejected. Perhaps no pastoral 
duty, not even that which the ordinary death-bed 
calls upon a minister to perform, is so awfully rao^ 
mentous, or so difficult, as that of directing the 
mind of a convinced and thoroughly awakened 
sinner into the narrow path of salvation. Advance, 
he must : and the very next step taken in such a 
crisis, may be decisive of his eternal doom. 
The skilful physician will endeavour to accom- 
modate the advice afforded in different cases, to 
their respective circumstances ; but the example of 
the primitive ministers of the gospel, and the 
very nature of the sinner's wants unite in deter- 
mining that counsel to be the safest, and generally 
far the most beneficial, which shall most magnify 
the offices of the Saviour, and enforce an im- 
mediate recourse by faith, to his cross. The 
more intelligibly this act of faith can be explain- 
ed to his mind, and the more essential to his sal- 
vation, it can be made to appear, the more effi- 
cacious, as a means of grace, the advice will be 
likely to prove. The inquirer himself, it is al- 
ways to be presumed, is a very incompetent 



MEMOIR OF BACON. 93 

judge of the treatment best adapted to his own 
case. Mr. Bacon's disappointment, on this oc- 
casion, to whatever it might be owing, was pro* 
bably serviceable to him ; as it more effectually 
taught him the fallacy of all expectations of re- 
lief not founded on the mercy and power of God 
alone. The perusal of " Doddridge's Rise and 
Progress/' which was put into his hands at the 
time, was an important help ; as, by preserving 
him from absolute despair, it gave him the power 
of concentrating his thoughts without distraction, 
on the great doctrines of salvation. His time 
was as much devoted to inquiry on these subjects, 
and to public prayer, as his secular avocations 
would permit. Thenceforward he mingled more 
freely, than ever before, in the circles of the 
pious, and found a great advantage in their so- 
ciety. It was by no means the least, that he was 
at once delivered from many of the temptations 
and dangers, unavoidably growing out of his 
former connexions. The spirit of grace con- 
tinued gradually to enlighten his mind, with a 
clearer knowledge of the gospel ; and in a few 
weeks, he found himself able to repose his soul 
with a happy confidence on his Saviour. 

At what moment the gift of faith was first 
imparted, and his heart brought to bow with en- 
tire submission to the yoke of Christ, does not 
plainly appear. But, from the period to which 
this part of the narrative refers, he seems never* 
even for a day, to have remitted the pursuit of 



i 



94> MEMOIR OF BACON. 

his salvation ; and scarcely to have declined, by 
a single relapse, from those high attainments in 
faith and holiness, which he was enabled through 
an abundant supply of grace, to make with a ra- 
pidity seldom exceeded by the most favoured 
christian. But it will be seen, that the original cor- 
ruptions of his heart were not at once, eradicated, 
nor the current of habit reversed, by an absolute 
exertion of divine power. But grace eventually 
accomplished this work by engaging all the pow- 
ers of his mind in a long and arduous course of 
exertion, vigilance and self-denial. His conflicts 
were often sharp and painful : but commonly of 
momentary continuance. The fervency of his 
prayers, and the habitual prevalence of a vigo- 
rous faith gave him an easy and rapid conquest 
of his spiritual foes. Nearly every struggle 
against sin proved to him the occasion of a new 
victory over it, till, by a dispensation as merciful 
to him, as mournful to the world he left, he was 
early translated to the scene of his everlasting 
triumph. 

The preceding narrative has brought down 
Mr. Bacon's history to the month of April, 1817. 
Sensible of the deficiency of his knowledge in 
religion, and in conformity with an excellent 
usage of the German Lutheran church, he lost 
no time in enrolling himself among the catechu- 
mens under its nurture and instruction. The con- 
nexion was consummated on the 24th and 25th of 
May, by his baptism, and admission to the holy 



MEMOIR OF BACON. £);> 

communion. His participation in these ordi- 
nances of his Saviour was not attended with all 
that immediate benefit which many have derived 
from them. Indeed^ the standard of his attain- 
ments in piety, which he at first proposed to him- 
self, was far from being elevated ; and he nei- 
ther sought, nor expected those abundant com- 
munications of the love of Christ which he af- 
terwards so happily realised. But his face was 
immoveably set, and his heart steadfastly di- 
rected in the pursuit of eternal life. All inde- 
cision on the main question of devoting his life 
to the service of God was effectually excluded* 
He appears from the commencement of his re- 
ligious life to have ' continued instant in prayer f 
and made the regular and frequent attendance on 
this duty in private, a part of the stated business 
of every subsequent day of his life ; and in this 
one practice, consisted the principal means of his 
uniform growth in grace, and eminent attainments 
in holiness. The most distinguishable features in 
his early religious character were deep humility, 
and a spirit of ardent supplication : to both of 
which, the most express promises of increasing 
grace are made in the word of God. Although 
connected with the Lutheran church, he confined 
neither his intercourse, nor his fellowship, to the 
members of that communion. He particularly de- 
lighted to mingle with the little associations of 
praying souls, belonging to different christian de- 
nominations in the place, who * often assembled 



96 MEMOIR OF BACON. 

themselves together' agreeably to the advice of the 
apostle, for mutual exhortation and united inter- 
cessions before the throne of their common Lord. 
In this edifying practice the members of four or 
five different communions were harmoniously 
united. Mr. Bacon had perhaps, loo precipi- 
tately, as he afterwards supposed, attached him- 
self to the Lutheran church. It is certain that 
many, and indeed most of his chosen associates, 
in whom was found that congeniality of reli- 
gious feelings and views, which alone could now 
lay the foundation for an intimate christian inter- 
course, belonged to other denominations. And 
whether the piety of the members of this church, 
generally, was of a lower order, or whether the 
customary expressions of it only, were of a less 
ardent cast, he soon found in other churches the 
means of spiritual enjoyment and improvement, 
of which he had not been able to avail himself so 
fully in his own. The use of the German lan- 
guage likewise, in which the ministrations of the 
Lutheran church were frequently conducted for 
the benefit of apart of the congregation, interrupt- 
ed the progress of his own improvement, in this 
communion. For these reasons, principally, 
the worship, and general character of the Epis- 
copal church on whose public and occasional 
services he frequently attended, soon acquired 
a decided preference in his mind. Believing 
that his own advancement in grace would be con- 
siderably promoted by a direct connexion with 



MEMOIR OF BACON. 97 

it, he accordingly removed his relation from the 
Lutheran, to this communion, a very few months 
only after his union with the former. Of the 
expediency of this step, christians of different 
persuasions will judge variously. He ever after- 
wards, regarded it as highly conducive to his 
personal comfort, and public usefulness ; but 
regretted sincerely, the painful sacrifice of feeling 
which it cost him to dissolve his connexion with 
a christian communion, to which he had many 
reasons for cherishing a strong attachment. 

Although occupied in no ordinary degree, in 
the momentous concerns of religion, he abated 
nothing of the diligence due to his secular du- 
ties. He had been appointed in February, of 
this year, prosecuting Attorney for the county of 
York, and was deeply engaged in the business 
of his profession. His industry was however, 
the result of a new set of principles, and ter- 
minated in objects essentially different from any 
which had previously animated it. The love of 
the world had subsided, and the strength of his 
ambition for human distinction, was for ever 
slain by the exhibition which faith had afforded 
him of his suffering Saviour's cross. 



iS 



98 MEMOIR OF BACNDK. 



CHAP. V. 

Indolence was no trait of Mr. Bacon's char- 
acter : nor was it compatible with the imitation 
of that Saviour's example, or the spirit of his 
religion, whom he had voluntarily received 
as his Lord and Master. To do good to others 
became the next object of his ardent desire, after 
he became satisfied of his own interest in so 
great a benefit, as the regeneration and com 
mencement of spiritual life, in his own heart. 
His thoughts were naturally directed to the min- 
istry, as the most effectual means of advancing: 
his Saviours interests in the world, and apply- 
ing the blessings of his gospel to the souls of men. 
But for nearly two years a survey of the respon- 
sibilities of that office, an enlightened view of 
the requisite qualifications, and a lively percep- 
tion of his own deficiencies, overawed the timid 
aspirations of his mind to so high a vocation, 
And the wisdom and kindness of God are now 
apparent in the delay which intervened. He 
was to be thoroughly disciplined for the holy 
work, the sincerity of his «eal fully attested, 
and the measure of his experience and know 
ledge greatly extended, by an humbler, and 
perhaps, quite as useful an occupation. Some 
thousands of neglected children were destined 
to receive through him the rudiments of a cBris 






MEMOIR OF BACON. 99 

tian education ; and the cause of Sabbath school 
instruction, to derive from his example and la- 
bours, a practical demonstration of its excellence 
and utility, which the exertions of no other in- 
dividual in this country had so fully afforded. 

No field of benevolent labour could have 
presented, which promised to reward the cul- 
ture that such talents as Mr. Bacon's were em- 
inently calculated to bestow upon it, with a rich- 
er harvest. The care and instruction of youth 
and children, were always favourite objects of 
his attention. He habitually regarded them not 
merely, as the prattling inmates of the domestic 
sanctuary ; but as destined to become the con- 
stituent members of human society, sustaining on 
their own shoulders the mighty fabric, and occu- 
pied in transacting its most weighty concerns. 
While they waited only for their predecessors to 
retire and give them their appointed place on the 
stage of life, his benevolence prompted him to 
seize the golden opportunity with a zeal ap- 
proaching to enthusiasm ; and to infix in their 
minds the knowledge and principles, of which 
their destination was so soon to require the appli- 
cation. The prospect which animated these ex- 
ertions was now expanded to infin'fy itself; and 
even what related to the present world, was en- 
larged to comprehend the interests of religion, the 
vast amount of human happiness connected with 
it, and the future prosperity of the church of 
God, He had likewise, from long experience 






100 MEMOIR OF BACON. 

in training the young mind to improvement, be- 
come thoroughly acquainted with its character, 
and eminently skilled in its management. Sel- 
dom had he failed to secure the affection and 
the confidence of his pupils. 

He lost no time in resolving to undertake, in 
the fear of God, something for the spiritual ben- 
efit of this interesting class of immortals. The 
Sunday School system appeared to promise ad- 
vantages, which no other known method of ju- 
venile religious instruction possessed. The 
surprising multiplication of these institutions 
during the last thirty years can have left very 
few in any part of Protestant Christendom, en- 
tirely unacquainted either with their origin, or 
happy effects. Their original design was to re- 
claim from a habit of profaning the sacred day, 
and to instruct in the rudiments of learning and 
morality, the children of the lowest classes of the 
poor, whose education would else have been 
utterly neglected. 

The individual who first conceived the be- 
nevolent scheme, and partially reduced it to 
practice, was Robert Raikes, a member of the 
society of Friends in Gloucester, England. 
His personal exertions commenced in 1781 ; and 
all the advantages of the system, were, for about 
two years, confined to the children of that single 
town. His example at length, began to find 
imitators ; and the christian public came by 
degrees, to discover that the system of Sunday 









MEMOIR OF BACON. 101 



school instruction offered the most effectual re 
niedy which had ever been applied to the igno- 
rance, irreligion, and innumerable other moral 
and Social evils arising out of the neglected edu- 
cation of the poor. Persons of all denominations 
with whom the improvement of the condition of 
the poor had been a matter of solicitude, began 
to collect the neglected children and youths 
within their influence, and place them under 
proper instructers of both sexes, to be taught on 
Sundays, the rudiments of learning and Christian- 
ity. Thus far, they were satisfied with a simple 
imitation of the plan pursued by Raikes, the ori- 
ginator of the system. But the improvements, 
which have been subsequently added, were neces- 
sary to give to these institutions, their full and 
proper effect, Without detracting from the praise 
justly due to their disinterested founder, these im- 
provements may be considered as extending, not 
only to the mode of conducting them, but to the 
object itself which the system designs to accom- 
plish. In order to meet the expense, and extend 
the benefits of these institutions, Mr. Raikes soon 
found it necessary, to combine the exertions of 
their friends into a systematic form. Sunday 
school societies, consisting of the individuals di- 
rectly engaged in supporting and instructing the 
several schools of a particular district, were ac- 
cordingly formed for mutual consultation and aid. 
The advantages realised from these associations 
led to the consolidation of all the societies in a 



!0# MEMOIR OF BACON, 

still larger district^ under a more general associa- 
tion : and in 1803, the Sunday School Uniois 
of London was formed, comprehending under it all 
the societies, and country Unions in the kingdom. 
The business of the union is conducted by a 
board of managers ; and consists in preparing 
suitable books for the use of the societies, in 
systematizing and improving the method of in- 
structing and organising the schools, in exer- 
cising over them a paternal superintendence, and 
extending all practicable encouragement and 
aid to the whole. 

The societies in the earlier stages of their ex- 
ertions, uniformly paid their teachers for their 
services. The Sunday school society of the me- 
tropolis alone had expended in this way, as ear- 
ly as the year 1800, four thousand pounds. 
But, besides the expense attendant on this prac- 
tice, it was perceived to be objectionable for a va- 
riety of other reasons. It was therefore resol- 
ved, after sixteen years' experience of its disad- 
vantages, to reform this part of the system. The 
appeal was accordingly made to those on whose 
benevolence the cause itself should impress a 
sufficient motive to engage them in the self- 
denying service. This resolution was adopt- 
ed by many societies with painful apprehensions 
for the probable result. But instead of a dimi- 
nution of the number of teachers, the conse- 
quence was their immediate and surprising in- 
crease, wherever the measure of gratuitous in- 



MEMOIR OP BACON. 103 

struction was adopted. It was soon discovered 
that thousands of persons of respectable charac- 
ter and the most competent qualifications, whom 
the offer of pecuniary compensation could ne- 
ver engage in the service of teaching, stood rea- 
dy to undertake it at the call of charity. The 
cause immediately felt, in its remotest extremes, 
the invigorating influence of this important im- 
provement in the system; and found a host of 
devoted and efficient advocates and coadjutors 
raised up for its support in every part of the 
kingdom.* This latter feature, has naturally led 
to a gradual alteration in the whole' character of 

* The extent to which Sunday schools have multiplied, 
and their advantages been diffused, may be imperfectly see© 
by the following very compressed statement formed from the 
latest returns which have been published in an authentic 
form. 

In England, the plan of the National school partially 
takes the place of the Sunday school system. There are 
nevertheless in that country* more than 80 unions, containing 
£,568 schools, 32,283 teachers, and £74,845 learners. The' 
scholars taught in succession for twenty years past, form an 
average not much below this number. 

In Scotland there was likewise supposed to exist in the 
Sabbath evening schools, and the system of parochial in- 
struction, a substitute for Sunday schools, established oft 
the English plan. But since the formation of an union in 
this country, 567 new schools, and 39,183 children have 
been received under its care. 

The Sunday school Society for Ireland, reports the num- 
ber of schools on their list to h> 1,091, and of scholars; 
113,525, : 






104? MEMOIR OF BACON. 

the system. The experiment of more that! 
twenty years has fully demonstrated that no 
other principle but that of an operative christian 
faith and piety, can, on the present system, en- 
gage in a persevering and zealous course of 
Sabbath school labours, the professed friends of 
the cause. The service is too humble, too labo- 
rious, and attended with too few earthly rewards 
long to animate any charity except that of the 
gospel. Hence, universally, wherever these 

■ 

The Protestant parts of France, and Holland are slow- 
ly imitating the example of Great Britain, in the establish- 
ment of a number of schools ; many of which, particularly 
in Holland, are in a flourishing state. 

By the exertions of Missionaries, schools have likewise 
been commenced in most of the West India Islands ; in 
Canada, New-Brunswick, New-Foundland, and at the dif- 
ferent Missionary stations in India, West Africa, and the 
American wilderness. At Sierra Leone, 4,000 are enjoy- 
ing the benefit of these institutions. 

Owing to the detached character of the efforts making 
in this cause by every denomination of christians in the 
United States, it is impossible to bring the aggregate re- 
sults into a single view. While comparatively a very small 
part of the ground which should be cultivated, has been oc- 
cupied, much, very much, has been already effected, and 
still more attempted, in this noblest of the efforts of char- 
ity. The Sunday and Adult school Union of Philadelphia 
combines a much greater number of schools than is associ- 
ated under any other single body in this country. In May, 
1821, the managers of this Union reported in their connex- 
ion, in eleven different states, 313 schools, S,724 teacher > 
and 24, 218 scholars, 



MEMOIR OP BACON. 103 

excellent institutions have been formed, they 
have naturally fallen into the hands of the most 
devoted and spiritual of the Redeemer's fol- 
lowers. Of this character, are, by far their 
most influential, as well as a great majority of 
their conductors and friends ; even while the 
system indiscriminately invites all of exemplary 
deportment, to aid in carrying on the work. Of 
the objections originally alleged against these 
schools, one of the most serious, represented 
them as incompatible with the sacred design of 
the Sabbath : nor is it quite certain that the 
method in which they were originally managed, 
may not, in some degree, have made them justly 
liable to this exception. But the general piety 
of the instructers, and the gradual modification 
of the whole system in conformity to their con- 
victions of the sacredness of this institution, have 
so completely obviated the scruples even of the 
most conscientious, as to secure in behalf of the 
cause the entire approbation of christians of 
every variety of faith and discipline in the world. 
Without any prejudice to the advancement of 
the scholars in the necessary branches of human 
learning, every part of the instruction is made 
strictly subservient to their religious improve- 
ment. Hence they come to associate all the 
knowledge of letters which they acquire, with 
the truths and precepts of the scriptures. In 
innumerable instances the members of these 
schools have been known to imbibe along witjbt 
14 



106 SIEMOIR OF BACOR. 






the rudiments of learning, the spirit of the gos- 
pel ; and during all their subsequent progress, 
have clearly displayed its holy influence in their 
improving tempers and habits ; and in riper age,, 
when surrounded with the cares and temptations 
of life, have preserved a consistent course of 
christian piety. 

Mr, Bacon's first step, towards the forma- 
tion of Sunday schools in York county, was 
fervently to commend the undertaking to God. 
His next was to interest in the object, and en- 
gage to second his exertions by a zealous co-ope- 
ration, a select few, whose hearts were warmed 
with the same sacred flame which animated his 
own. Individuals of this character he saw were 
to be drawn together from all the different chris- 
tian societies in the place :— an object which he 
happily accomplished by setting them the ex- 
ample of sacrificing party-feelings aud preju- 
dices, so far as to meet and unite on the common 
ground of a disinterested and practical charity. ' 
A Sunday school society for York county was 
immediately formed, on the 7th of August, 1817, 
and down to the present date, it may be re- 
marked in anticipation, has been so highly fa- 
voured, as to preserve a good share of the spirit 
of harmony and christian love in which it origi- 
nated* Mr. Bacon was placed in the chair; and 
held the same situation until he finally removed 
from the county. A school for children was 
opened on the 17th, in the village of York, with 



MEMOIR OF BA.CON. 107 

twenty-six scholars. The number shortly in* 
creased to two hundred ; and the society has 
since exhibited on its rolls, more than three hun- 
dred. 

The moral condition of no class of the pop- 
ulation of Pennsylvania exhibits so much de- 
basement and wretchedness, as that of the free 
blacks. Mr. Bacon and his zealous associates 
could not comtemplate sp moving a spectacle 
without pitying tlip sufferers. To pity, was 
with him, to attempt their relief. A school 
for adults of this class, without excluding others 
of the same age who chose to attend, was ac- 
cordingly opened, in September But the op- 
portunity for improving their minds thus afforded, 
was still deemed too circumscribed ; and at Mr. 
Bacon?p suggestion was extended to four addi- 
tional nights in every week. Npt only did the 
direction of these schools chiefly devolve on him- 
self; but he constantly took an active and la- 
borious part in the business of instructing them. 
It was his ' meat and his drink? to be active for 
his Saviour, and the souls whom he had redeem - 
ed with his blood. Love to God, and its natur- 
al offspring and best expression, love to the 
souls of his fellow immortals, was the principle 
which invigorated every effort, and directed his 
zeal to the grand object of promoting their eter- 
nal salvation. It could repose on no inferior in- 
terest. Hisjdaily and nightly labours, prayers*, 
and nameless conflicts, were all directed to this 



108 MEMOIR OF BACON. 

end. This object furnished to all his addresses, 
their subjects aud illustrations; shaped their 
style ; softened and qualified his whole deport- 
ment ; and in short, took the precedence in his 
mind, of every other. Hundreds live to testify ^ 
that their own salvation was thus pursued with 
such ardour and perseverance, and led to such 
sacrifices, a6 placed his sincerity in the sacred 
work beyond all doubt, and proved the impres- 
sions made by the declarations of holy writ on 
the enlightened eye of his faith, to be much more 
vivid than those which the events of time, and 
the things of the world, could produce on his 
imagination and senses. His views of the lost 
condition and utterly corrupted character of the 
unregenerate, whether old or youngs were emi 
nently scriptural ; and resulted from the convinc- 
ing comment on the declarations of scripture, 
which the divine Spirit had written upon his own 
heart. As a dependent instrument, he always 
aimed to fix this conviction effectually in the con 
sciences of the youth of his charge, as an es- 
sential prerequisite to repentance and conver- 
sion. In short, he justly regarded children as 
men in miniature, requiring the same atone- 
ment, the same regeneration, Ihe same divine 
faith, and the same sanctifying spirit of grace 
to deliver them from the " wrath of God revealed 
from Heaven against all ungodliness, and un- 
righteousness of men ," The language of his 
addresses was at once simple and forcible ; and 






MEMOIR OF BACON. 409 



they commonly found out the conscience, to 
which they were always powerfully directed, 
u 1 am grieved/' he declared, on one of these oc- 
casions, "to see you so careless of the salvation 
of your souls. If a happy spirit could come 
from Heaven and tell you how much it cost to 
get there ; or if a miserable soul could come 
from Hell and tell you of the unheard of and 
unexpected torments it found there ; you would 
all fall upon your trembling knees and begin to 
pray. Many, many young persons, it is proba- 
ble, are now in ruin and torment, for doing those 
very things which you do, and for not doing 
those very things which you leave undone, every 
day. God's holy law is a very strict one. You 
are all exceedingly wicked in his sight. He 
says, you shall give an account of every idle 
word. If you are angry with one another^ 
without good cause, He looks upon it as bad as 
murder : if you covet or wish to possess the 
good things of another, He looks upon it as bad 
as stealing : .if you tell or wish to tell falsehoods 
about any person, He looks upon it as bad as 
bearing false witness : if you love any person 
or thing better than God, you worship that 
person or thing as an idol : if you spend your 
time in idleness during the working days of 
the week, or if you do not worship God faith- 
fully on the Sabbath, you are condemned by 
God for breaking that commandment; and so on 
through the whole. Now you are, every one, 



ilO MEMOIU OF BACON- 

under a sentence of condemnation. For you 
have broken God's holy laws, a thousand times ; 
whereas, if you had only broken them once, 
God would have condemned you. It is most 
certain, if you do not repent of your sins and 
pray to God to forgive them, you must go to 
Hett. Every time you stay from school ; every 
time you laugh or play in school ; every idle 
word you speak in school ; every wicked idle 
thought you think in school, God takes notice of, 
and condemns you for it. You know, if a bad 
man steal or murder or do any other crime, they 
have him tried by the judge in court, and he is 
condemned to be punished ; but if he repent 
and become good, some good person may go to 
the governor and get him pardoned ; and then 
the man is not punished, but returns to his 
friends. Now, these wicked things you have all 
done in the sight of God, and He has had you 
all condemned to be sent to a dreadful Hell. 
But if you will repent and confess to God how 
bad you have been; and if you sincerely cry to 
Him to have mercy upon you, there is a mighty Sa- 
viour who will go and plead with God for you 
to be pardoned. It is Jesus Christ, who died 
for you, and who well knows how much your 
souls cost; and God has promised to pardon all 
wicked persons, who repent and cry for mercy, 
because Jesus Christ died to obtain their pardon, 
and make them for ever happy. O how good 
was this Saviour, to die instead of us ! What 



MEMOIR OF BACON, ill 

wicked creatures we are, who do not love such 
a Saviour ! We are now going to fall down and 
pray to God, while He stands looking into out 
Hearts. He sees what we are now doing. H& 
knows what we are now thinking : and hears 
what we are now speaking. There is a wicked 
little girl who is thinking bad ! God knows it ? 
and it is written in the book of His remember- 
ance. Oh what bad thoughts ! They are writ- 
ten down and all the hosts of Heaven can read 
them. We cannot read them now ; but they 
Will be told to gill the world in the day of judg- 
ment ; and then every one in this room will hear 
them. Here is a little child who is speaking and 
playing! God has had that put down too. Oh 
how terrible it is to have it written in God*s 
book for all the world to read ! 

" That child who would not come to school 
last Sabbath, and who has been angry and told 
some lies and would not learn the scripture les- 
son ! All that is put down in that dreadful book, 
and that child is condemned to be cast into 
Hell. But if the child will only pray for mercy, 
God will forgive these great sins, for the sake of 
our blessed Saviour Jesus Christ. And if we do 
not pray soon, it may be too late ; because we 
may die. So many are dying in the world, 
that learned people say, sixty persons die every 
minute. They are dying as fast as you can say 
dead, dead, dead, dead. Four persons are sup- 
posed to have died, while I was saying thosa 



112 MEMOIR OF BACON. 

words. In the last half hour only, I expect eight 
een hundred persons have died. What a mercy 
none of us were in this number. Perhaps we 
shall be among those who are to die the next half 
hour. May (rod have mercy on us, and help us 
to pray earnestly, that our souls may be convert- 
ed and saved. 

" My dear children, let me ask you who wants 
to go to Heaven? Do you? And do you ? And 
do you? — -Then you must pray. Prayer will open 
the door for you. You must repent of your sins. 
You must love God, and your Saviour. You 
must love your teachers and each other. You 
must come constantly to school. You must 
bring all the other children that you can find. 
You must continue to be learners in school, till 
you get to be teachers ; and you must labour to 
do good as long as you live." 

Mr. Bacon seldom omitted any opportunity 
of doing good which was providentially present- 
ed. But his zeal was still directed by judgment, 
and tempered with unfeigned christian affection : 
and uo labour to him was too humble which 
promised to benefit an immortal soul. The suc- 
ceeding paragraphs are extracted from a letter 
addressed to a youth in Philadelphia, who at 
its date, was but a single remove from child 
hood. 
" Dear James, 

"Itoccuredto me while sitting alone and 
thinking of Philadelphia, its schools and its 



MEMOIR 01* BACON. 113 

children, that I might turn niy acquaintance with 
some of the youths to a good account. Per- 
haps, I thought to myself, God will bless a word 
of advice to James L. if I should sit down and 
Write him a letter. So I instantly took up my 
pen, and have proceeded so far with it. I 
thought within myself, that James loves me^ 
because I took notice of him and treated him 
affectionately. I love him too ; not on account 
of his dress ; not on account of his looks, or per- 
sonal appearance ; not on account of his learning ; 
not on account of his friends and relations ; but I 
love him on account of his modest, meek, and 
pious appearance, and because he loves and 
obeys his teachers and strives to do good. I hear 
he goes about to persuade boys to come to Sun- 
day school, and does all the good he can. I 
love him because I think he prays and reads his 
Bible, and loves God. These are some of the 
reasons, why I love James L. But the chief rea- 
son why I love him is, not for any thing that he 
now is, but for what he is capable of being, and 
what he certainly will be, if he strives with all 
his hearty — a saint in glory. Now surely, my 
dear James, you will not suppose that one, who 
loves you, would give you bad advice or tell you 
things not true. Well, I am going to tell you what 
is very true. You have a very wicked heart. 
All people have wicked hearts at first ; when 
they are young they are born with them : and 

they all continue to be very wicked, till God 

15 



114 MEMOIR OF BACO: 






gives them a new heart. Has God ever changed 
your heart, or created it anew ? Have you ever 
beeu " born again?" has your soul ever been: 
converted? If not, James, you must pray to God 
to create your heart anew. You must pray 
every night and morning. Before you go to 
Sunday school you must fervently pray to God 
to give you grace to learn, and do good. You 
ought not to be a teacher, till you have been 
adopted by God into the number of his believ- 
ing children. I desire you would ponder these 
things in your heart and be earnest in prayer, 
It is our privilege to u rejoice evermore, pray 
without ceasing, and in every thing give thanks.** 
That is, to have a devotional, prayerful spirit, 
and also to rely on God as our father in such a 
manner, as to feel grateful for even his chastise- 
ments, and to rejoice under the heaviest afflic- 
tions, of a temporal nature. When you be- 
come a true christian, what a happy boy you 
will be ! Oh do not permit a moment to pass with- 
out letting it carry home to God a good account 
of you." 

The foregoing extracts are introduced chiefly 
in order to illustrate the example which Mr. 
Bacon gave, of a close imitation of his Saviour, 
in a trait of his character which perhaps the. 
pride of our nature, renders it more difficult per- 
fectly to copy, than many others,— his love and 
condescension to little children. In a large 
share of Mr. Bacon's labours for their benefit, 






MEMOIR OF BACON. lift 

the ordinary stimulants of false zeal, and hypo- 
crisy, scarcely, it would seem, had room to ope* 
rate at all. These are the exertions, therefore, 
which if not his most disinterested and useful, 
certainly more than any others, evince to his 
fellow-men, the abstraction of his affections from 
the world, the purity of his zeal, and the opera- 
tive strength of his faith. 

The discipline of Sunday schools has been 
a subject of much speculation, and one on which 
a variety of opinions and practices have obtain- 
ed among their friends. But wherever their ex- 
alted object has been kept fully in view, the 
proper mode of their government has generally 
suggested itself. Mr. Bacon regarded these 
schools as having almost exclusively the nature 
of religious institutions ; and consequently re- 
quiring that sort of discipline which the gospel 
prescribes for training the children of the church 
for its communion, and for everlasting salvation. 
Perhaps a more faithful application of these 
principles of discipline has seldom been made, 
or been attended with better success, than in the 
ease which Mr. Bacon relates in the following 
extract. 

u L. was a child often years old. He seem- 
ed to combine in his disposition the cunning of 
the serpent with the fierceness of the young tiger, 
and mischievousness of the ape. The first time 
he attended the Sunday school he stole a testa- 
ment. He was detected in having it in posses- 






116 MEMOIR OF BACOls, 

sion ; but persisted with the most dariug effron 
tery in asserting that he had bought it The 
label of ' Sunday school/ which was written 
in it by the superintendant, was pointed out to 
him : and that, together with confronting hitn 
with the gentleman of whom he said he bought 
it, and who explicitly declared he had not sold 
it to him, seemed to have no other effect than to 
induce him, in defiance of the most positive tes- 
timony, to redouble his falsehoods and prevari- 
cations. His case was pointed out to all the 
teachers. We feared to do any thing that might 
drive him from school, or throw him off our 
hands unreformed. There was danger of ex- 
citing the hostility of his friends, as he was a 
favourite, and a spoiled child. We exhorted, 
expostulated, and explained on the holy com- 
mand, — ' Thou shalt not steal ; ? but without 
any direct application to him. This course was 
pursued for one year ; about half the Sundays 
of which he attended school. We had flattered 
ourselves that he was reformed. But judge of 
our surprise, when we learnt by information from 
another scholar, that our books had multiplied 
on his hands at home, to the number of half a 
dozen, which he had the hardihood to offer for 
sale. We then felt him heavy at our skirts. The 
plan of reformation was soon devised and adopt- 
ed. L. was taken aside into a vacant room by 
the superintendant, and his crimes set in full 
array before him. Warnings, entreaties, life, 



MEMOIR OF BACON. 11/ 

death, the gallows and the final judgment, 
were all called up in aid of the cause of refor- 
mation ; and at last his soul was commended to 
God in earnest prayer. The superintendant, 
having exhausted his stock of grace, turned him 
qver to one of the teachers. The same course 
was gone through. This done, another teacher, 
and so on, till seven in succession/exhausted all 
they had to say.— You may judge of his feel- 
ings. At the close of the school, he went home* 
His friends were at first enraged : but on being 
told his crimes, and warned, themselves, to look 
to it, that his blood did not lie at their doors ; 
they became quiet. Two Sabbaths intervened, 
and no L. appeared in school. But on the third, 
he made his appearance with all the books under 
his arm. He gave them to the superintendant, 
took his seat, and soon manifested that he had 
left behind him, his former uncomfortable pas- 
sions and dispositions, and had brought in their 
stead a temper entirely docile and lamb-like/* 

On this case Mr, Bacon very justly remarks 
to his friend, in favour of the course pursued 
with the little delinquent, and generally, of the 
utility of the Sabbath school discipline, that * to 
estimate the value and probable effect of this 
mode of reformation let us ask whether, if you 
at the age of ten years had passed a Sabbath af 
ternoon, from one to four o'clock under the reitera- 
ted expostulations, and exhortation, watered 
with the tears, and lifted towards Heaven by the 



118 MEMOIR OF BACON, 

prayers and sighs of seven earnest Sunday 
school champions, you could ever have forgotten 
it? It would prohably have been a day fresh in 
your recollection, as long as memory endured. 
This method has to recommend it, unity of spi- 
rit, concert of action, the labour of many, and 
the experience, the grace and the prayers of all. 
And if after this, the child should even leave the 
school, two grand objects are gained : first, your 
duty is done; secondly, the child carries with 
him what he can never forget." 

The experience of nearly forty years in the 
management of Sunday schools, by so many 
thousands of discerning and eminently active 
christians, could leave little or nothing in the 
system to be materially improved by the obser- 
vations of an individual, in the short period of a 
f^w months. Mr. Bacon accordingly acquiesced 
in the plan as it had come into his hands ma- 
tured by the wisdom of his predecessors. The 
details of the system however, approved them- 
selves to his judgment ; and gave free scope 
for his zeal to exert itself to the utmost in inter- 
csting the public mind, and diffusing the benefits 
of the institution, as widely as possible. But 
it would be less than is due to Mr. Bacon's 
zeal and fidelity in the cause, to conceal that his 
active invention was constantly suggesting to the 
society, to his correspondents, and all his chris- 
tian associates, some new expedients for carry 
ing forward with increased effect their disinteres 



MEMOIR OF BACON. My 

led labours. These suggestions were equally 
creditable to his judgment and to his heart. In 
the very fervour of action, and the severest 
struggles against opposition, seldom was he 
known to advise, utter, or do any thing which 
in the event did not appear to be the result of 
a rational and sober estimate of all the attendant 
circumstances, and to prove eventually, benefi- 
cial to the cause. 

Having in a few months obtained from the 
effects of the schools in the village of York, a 
convincing demonstration of their inestimable 
advantages, and in a good measure occupied the 
field which they were intended to cultivate, he 
urged the society to depute their most active mem- 
bers to other parts of the county for the pur- 
pose of founding new schools. In this service 
Mr. Bacon was foremost. The method observ- 
ed was to assemble the inhabitants of the 
several villages, and thickly settled parts of 
the county, explain the design and advantages 
of Sunday schools, and propose the formation 
of an auxiliary society for supporting one or morot 
among themselves. When this representation 
produced, as it seldom failed to do, the desired 
effect, Mr. Bacon and his coadjutors assisted in 
the formation of the schools, and even labo- 
riously participated in their management and 
instruction. During the year 1818, six addi- 
tional schools, with nearly the same number 
of auxiliary societies, were thus established; and 



ISO MEMOIR Oi BACON* 

in the early part of 1819, twenty-six mote! 
In July, of this year, it was stated in the re- 
port read before the parent society in York, that 
there were then u thirty-three schools, employing 
about 220 teachers, and containing 2,200 scho- 
lars, within the county." These schools, with a 
very few exceptions, were all the fruits of Mr. 
Bacon's personal exertions, and owed much of 
their success, and the interest which they held 
in the public mind, to his efficient superinten- 
dence. Of the report containing this statement, 
Mr. Bacon was the author. The effect pro- 
duced on his feelings by so great success in a 
cause which he considered far the most impor- 
tant that had ever engaged his support, and the 
incalculable amount of good which he anticipated 
in the results, were rather deep humiliation, and 
a sense of unprofitableness than a spirit of self 
gratulation: — results which the power of divine 
grace alone could have rendered possible ! " We 
do not," the report proceeds, " review our labours 
with complacency ; for we know we might have 
done more ; we are sure we might have done 
better." In the same report, he says, " We 
have now closed our account of the schools. 
We look at their number and wants, and while 
we reflect on the circumstances of their establish- 
ment, we find that they might have been more 
numerous, and better conducted. We have 
been, — we see and feel, 'we have been, unprofi- 
table servants. 9 " 



MEMOIR OF BACON. 131 

During a part of 1818, and 1819, bis labours 
arising out of his professional business, and his 
attention to these schools, were too numerous 
and exhausting for the strongest constitution and 
the firmest health, long to sustain. The remo- 
test of the schools which he statedly, and often 
visited on the Sabbath, were twenty, and even 
twenty-five miles distant from his residence. 
He was obliged commonly, in every condition of 
the weather and roads, to visit several of these 
schools in the same day, addressing the pupils, 
encouraging the teachers, examining the mi- 
nutes, correcting what was wrong in the man- 
agement, and even cultivating a particular ac- 
quaintance with the individual scholars. In 
performing these weekly circuits, he found it 
very often necessary to encroach on one or both 
the days contiguous to the Sabbath, in order to 
accomplish them. His health was frequently as 
low as would admit of such frequent exposures 
and extreme fatigue ; and quite as good, as so 
severe a discipline of his animal and mental 
powers could reasonably be expected to permit 
him to enjoy. The nature of these labours is 
pourtrayed with a colouring so strong and yet so 
natural and just, in a letter which Mr Bacon 
addressed to an esteemed christian friend, as to 
authorise a short extract from it, and atone for 
the repetition of a few of the foregoing particu- 
lars. "You would sometimes smile, and it 

ay be, at others weep at the detail of our ad 

16 






l%% MEMOIR OF BACON. 

ventures and troubles. Had you seen roe at 
one time beating my way through the hills, 
with great difficulty, and some danger,— myself, 
horse, sleigh and all nearly buried in snow- 
banks : at other times, out late and early, in the 
wet and cold ; drenched in rain ; often so ex- 
hausted as to be hardly able to address an audi- 
ence ; and ready, not unfrequently, to say that 
my poor weak constitution had at last received 
its fatal blow ; — you would exclaim that nothing 
but divine help could have sustained me. You 
may perhaps, be not quite informed of our me- 
thod of organising a school in a new place. In 
opposition to the views and wishes of our Board, 
I succeeded in prevailing on them to embark in 
the establishment of distant schools. It was a 
hard point to gain. This done, a committee was 
appointed to visit such places as offered a favour- 
able opening. The committee gave notice of the 
time and place at which they would meet the 
people to explain the nature of the schools. On 
the Saturday preceding these appointments, the 
committee would set out, and arrive in the neigh- 
bourhood the same night,— next morning go to 
the place appointed,— begin with singing and 
prayer, and address them in a speech of an 
hour, sometimes two ; in which you had bigotry, 
prejudice and nationality to encounter; together 
with ignorance, and vice, and folly, in every 
shape. You had to avoid the prejudices of 
Quakers, Lutherans, Albrights, Dunkers, Ger- 



MEMOIR OF BACON. 123 

man Presbyterians, English Presbyterians, Me- 
thodists, Baptists, Roman Catholics, Deists, and 
at last, my brethern, the cold Episcopalians. 
The event generally was, that the people agreed 
to have a school ; appointed the officers, and a 
day for commencing it. The meeting was closed 
with prayer and praise. On the next Sabbath, 
and commonly, for one or two succeeding Sab- 
baths, we must visit the same place to organise 
the school, and teach it. It is in this way that 
the schools on our records have struggled into 
existence. And in this way maynschools be 
established in every county. A few, nay only 
one zealous individual in the county towns, may 
be the instrument of exciting the people, and 
carrying on schools in any county. It has been 
tried ; it is practicable. You see what the Lord 
hath done for us here. Let a similar course be 
recommended to other counties. He will do the 
same every where." 

Perseverance amidst the difficulties and la- 
bours necessarily attending the advancement of 
a good cause, requires less fortitude, and is a 
more equivocal test of a sincere attachment to it, 
than to be capable of rising above the mortifica- 
tion of reproach, and the sneers of affected con- 
tempt. There is no known principle in wire- 
generate human nature that is proof against an 
attack from this quarter. But the faith which 
overcomes the world, opposes an impenetrable 
shield for the protection of the believer from 



121 MEMOIR OF BACON* 

these sharpest of the shafts of persecution. He. 
and he alone can ' rejoice to be accounted worthy 
to suffer shame for the name of Christ.' And 
to this trial, Mr. Bacon's faith, was to a certain 
extent, subjected in the prosecution of these pious 
labours. " With the exception of myself/' he 
states, in the same letter, " we have not one ac- 
tive member above the grade of a mechanic. 
We are shoe makers, tailors, carpenters, ma- 
sons, black-smiths,— almost to a man. I except 
* * * * * w i 10 i s y e t a m ere youth, but a very 
useful and capable one. All our learned and 
genteel people stand aloof. They neither raise 
a hand, nor give a cent. These remarks apply 
to the town only. — Yes, sir, it is cast upon us as 
a matter of reproach, ' They are all young/ — 
f They have no old established men amongst 
them : ? — i They arc all low people, all mechan- 
ics, except Bacon ; and he disgraces himself 
and his profession by associating with them." 
Yet, thanks be to God, Christ is our leader: 
and we shall triumph. This sort of censure re- 
minds me of the old Pharisaical reproach, fc Is 
not this the carpenter's son V We have nomi- 
nal members who are capable of doing much, 
but they do not pray. We cannot send them to 
our schools. A praying apprentice boy would 
be more likely to be successful." 

Mr. Bacon never sought opposition ; but 
evinced the most conscientious solicitude, on all 
occasions, that his * good should not be evil spo- 



MEMOIR OF BACON. 125 

ken of. ? His charity for his fellow-men was 
too fervent and universal to allow him to desire 
his own immortal crown to be brightened at the 
expense of any opposition from the unbelieving, 
which might involve them in sin, or its punish- 
ment. At a later date, than the period to which 
the foregoing extracts refer, he enjoyed the satis- 
faction of perceiving that the course which he, 
pursued led, in the providence of God, to a full 
vindication of his conduct, in the eyes even of 
his determined opposers : and that scarcely an 
occasion of distrusting the purity of his motives 
was left them. To a friend, he writes, in the 
summer of 1819, " We have our trials. But the 
circumstances of my having resigned my com- 
missions, quit the practice of the law, and renounc- 
ed every pursuit from which pecuniary emolument 
is to be derived, are now known among the 
schools, and have a surprising effect. The peo- 
ple are astonished. They charged me with in- 
terested motives, before. But the occasion for 
such an imputation, is so completely cut off, that 
they have not a word to say. They believe me 
in their consciences, sincere ; and every word T 
address to them, makes an impression on their 
hearts. I am inclined to think, that all I have 
done for years past for the schools, will now pro- 
duce fruit. My voluntary relinquishment of 
office, honour and money, will have an effect 
not soon to be got over." 



126 MEMTOlIi OF BACOK. 

Seldom has consummate christian prudence 
been more speedily, and entirely triumphant, 
than in the instance here related. But where- 
ver it is exercised in the same degree, the good 
effects will always be apparent in the removal of 
a multitude of obstructions to the progress of the 
gospel, out of the way. Men will necessarily 
hate the truth, and show their dislike to those 
who most resemble their Redeemer, until their 
hearts are renewed by his grace. But let it be 
recollected, that every man 7 s conscience, and 
reason, as far as they are not perverted by false 
teaching, or clouded with ignorance, are on the 
side of truth; and whenever assisted by a strictly 
circumspect and disinterested conduct in the ser- 
vants of Christ, those faculties of the soul tend 
strongly to disarm the open hostility which he 
might otherwise raise against them. To the in- 
quiry, which of the faults of the ministers of re- 
ligion have most hindered the success of their 
labours ? The proper answer would doubtless 
assign to the first place, their neglect to cultivate 
inward holiness ; and to the second, their disre- 
gard of the Saviour's command, <be ye wise as 
serpents, and harmless as doves.' 

The enthusiasm of Mr. Bacon's devotion to 
(he cause of Sunday schools was associated with 
a feeling of the picturesque, and derived its 
support in part, from a strong sensation of the 
morally sublime. This feeling was produced 
by combining in the same view, the present cir- 



MEMOIR OF BACON. 1&7 

cumstances of these institutions with the bound- 
less prospect of the future benefits to which they 
opened ; and, by mingling with all the cares 
and fatigues which they caused him, the strongly 
excited affections of his heart. Writing to a 
friend of congenial character in Philadelphia^ 
he relates, that "I have just opened a school^ 
eighteen miles distant, at which forty-five scho- 
lars, and one hundred and fifty spectators were 
present ; who all went away exclaiming in the 
language of the Poacher's Daughter, ' What a 
fine thing is a Sunday school !' After a short 
address, twenty-four persons, in about ten mi- 
nutes, stepped forward and gave, each, a dollar. 
You would rejoice to have been present and to 
have seen twenty-three boys from fourteen to 
eighteen years of age form themselves into a 
class, to become Sunday school scholars, — all 
decently clad, healthy, serious, attentive, docile, 
obedient! It was a lovely sight. God bless 
them ! A meeting had been previously proposed 
and the inhabitants gathered from the neigbour- 
ing country in every direction. — The result w r as, 
that each one preferred his entreaties for a school 
to be opened in his own neighbourhood. Thus 
the Lord seems to have kindled a fire in our 
hills and mountains that may be expected soon 
to break out in different places." 

In a letter to the same friend at a subsequent 
date, he states, " I was yesterday at three differ- 
ent Sunday-school stations : one at ten o'clock 



1,38 MEMOIR OI BACON, 

in the morning, and the others at two, and five 
in the evening. These schools are at the dis- 
tance of fifteen, eighteen, and twenty miles from 
York. Of course I was obliged to go out on 
Saturday, and return on Monday. At two of 
the places I examined schools, containing, the 
one thirty, and the other eighty scholars : at the 
other, I revived a suspended school. On next 
Sunday I have likewise, three appointments, — 
one to revive another suspended school, and the 
other two to establish new ones. Our next re- 
port will exhibit about thirty -five schools. I tell 
you, my friend, I am actually astonished, — ex- 
travagant as my anticipations have been, — I am 
astonished at the extent of what I am enabled to 
do. It is my God that helps. We build in 
vain unless the Lord blesses. — But who will 
take care of the schools when Samuel Bacon is 
in Africa? Who will willingly, place himself 
in the hands of his God, and do what he, with 
many infirmities, is endeavouring to do? Alas ! 
I tremble for these schools. 

" Yon will see on our last report * * * * town 
Sunday school. I will place that by the side of 
any similar institution averaging eighty scholars, 
in Philadelphia. It is in the woods, — the town 
itself is in the woods, and the school is one mile 
from town. Yet there are habitations thickly 
scattered up and down over the mountain, seem- 
ingly only fit for rabbits and foxes, presenting 
here and there a potatoe-field, or other cultivated 



MEMOIR OF BACON* 1S9 

spot, From these cottages are gathered in all, 
about one hundred and forty children, who come 
a distance of four, and even five miles. They 
assemble in a log house, which serves the peo- 
ple as a church* Here they learn ;— here the 
Lord blesses. You should see them travelling 
home with bare feet, as hard as the rocks they 
climb, and with burnt faces, as brown as the 
forests where they dwell! Your city Sunday 
schools are hot houses where you rear a growth of 
sickly plants ; — our mountain schools are glades, 
where the sturdy oaks of the forest grow/* 

To illustrate still further the degree in which 
his heart was at home in these labours, and how 
prominent a place the great object of doing good 
held in all his thoughts, another extract of a 
letter bearing a still later date, is here introduc- 
ed. " We have a daily charity school, of 
one hundred scholars, taught every evening from 
four to six o'clock. Last Sabbath, I visited two 
of our schools in the country. On my approach 
within two miles of one of them, I fell in with a 
little company of children, hastening to it, as cheer- 
ful as the birds of the forest where I met them* 
I followed them through the almost pathless 
woods,- — found thirty-five scholars, half adults, 
gathered in the house of an old christian, under 
the brow of a mountain. There the solitary 
place rejoiced in a song of Zion : amongst the 
wild shrubbery of the wilderness were seen 
these blooming plants of immortal growth. I 

17 



130 MEMOIR OF BACON. 

rejoiced in the prospect of their one day singing 
in Heaven. A new era, sir, is opening for Sun- 
day schools in this region. Hear it and rejoice^ 
This school was established at the house of an 
individual, with whom it continued until last 
Sunday ; when another of its friends wished it 
one Sabbath at his own house ; another still, 
took the hint, add desired to accommodate it at 
his house on the succeeding Sabbath. Now, 
sir, I approve the plan, and shall encourage its 
circulation from house to house. Thus the fa- 
milies of a whole neighbourhood will in turn, 
receive it; — and with it, the prayers, and the 
praises which are offered in it. The expense 
of a house will be spared ; the children will 
have the advantage of a more effectual restraint 
on the levity of their behaviour ; and the 
school will leave a blessing behind it, wherever 
it goes. I pursue the hint. In neighbourhoods 
where no houses can be found for a school, 
we will adopt this plan. The fashion will 
spread : half a dozen families will join and in- 
struct their children in rotation : families will 
learn to observe the Sabbath, and be taught the 
work of prayer and praise : each will hear His 
word ; and each, become a Bethel. — Knowing 
as I do, the constitution of society and the cus- 
toms of the people in our interior, I see this to 
be all practicable. This school is in the arms 
of two venerable, and aged farmers, who, to use 
their own expression, 'have feared the Lord 



MEMOIR OF BACON. 131 

these thirty years f and while they water it 
with their prayers and counsels, those who are 
younger and better educated, instruct the chil- 
dren." 

Among all the trials which this pious phil.an- 
throphist was obliged to sustain, the severest 
arose out of those circumstances which seemed 
to endanger the prosperity of the schools. His 
spirit was often wrung by what he deemed the 
remissness of some of the members of the so- 
ciety in carrying forward the work. Few of 
his associates perhaps, possessed all his expan- 
sive charity ; &nd fewer still, the warmth of his 
natural temperament. But even his complaints 
sprung from a principle of disinterestedness., 
were blended with affection, and were chiefly 
poured out into the bosom of God, in the same 
prayer which plead for the souls of the unin- 
strueted children of the county. In his journal 
under date of December 15^ 1818, his feelings 
on this subject, found utterance in the following 
lamentation : 

" Oh there is such a backwardness in the 
members of our society to go as teachers to dis- 
tant schools on the Sabbath! It often seems I 
am to be left alone, at last ! What coldness ! 
What reluctance ! My spirit is often so grieved, 
it almost sinks within me. I often seem to have 
a mountain upon me, and no one to raise a finger 
to help jne bear it ! Oh my God ! I cry to 
Thee ! I cry to Thee ! Give me a clean heart, 



13S MEMOIR OF BACON. 

and then give me grace to pray, and faith to be- 
lieve ; and I know that Thou wilt help ! — Oh 
my brother, my brother, that have just left me ! 
You have so grieved my heart, that I know not 
what to think of you ! May God have mercy on 
you !" 

In Pennsylvania, as commonly happens among 
a population of a various national origin, the des- 
cendants of the German, and of the English set- 
tlers, are dissociated by strong and nearly invinci- 
ble jealousies. The former, view with very marked 
suspicion, any measures which seem to tend ei- 
ther to curtail their influence in the community, 
or supplant their cherished, national characteris- 
tics by the substitution of manners and institu 
tions of English origin. One of the most ani- 
mating circumstances distinguishing the for- 
mation of the Sunday school society of York, 
was the harmonious concurrence of these for- 
merly discordant masses of the population, in 
the sacred object. Managers, teachers, scholars, 
belonging to the two classes, indiscriminately, 
were for some months, seen amicably united in 
the common objects of the institution. Besides 
the direct advantages of the school, the effects 
of this union of parties in doing away their 
mutual prejudices, promised to be of the hap- 
piest nature. But in about one year after the 
organisation of the school, Mr. Bacon had occa- 
sion to communicate the following intelligence 
tpthe ** Union" of Philadelphia, with which the 



MEMOIR OF BA.CON. 133 

society had then become associated. " It was 
necessary that we should be opposed in order to 
be rendered faithful and humble, and be made to 
feel our dependence on ' the giver of every good 
and perfect gift.* The German population early 
took the alarm, and have now quite withdrawn 
all countenance and support. A defection of 
teachers, members, scholars and purses, follow- 
ed. We had been at great expense in providing 
rooms, books, furniture and fuel for three hun- 
dred and fifty scholars. Our expenses during 
the year just ended, have amounted to nearly 
four hundred dollars. We likewise felt severe- 
ly the loss of scholars, as well as of the means 
of support. But never discouraged, though 
often desponding ; never reviling, though often 
persecuted, we cast our cares on Him, ' Who 
careth for us ; ? and are now rising from our par- 
tial overthrow. When one source of revenue 
was dried up, another seems to have opened. 
Our Heavenly Father, blessed be His name, 
knows our necessities ; especially the need we 
have of i the continual dew of His blessing/ and 
has enabled us to 'ask in faith believing ;' and 
we give Him praise, that He has often answered 
our prayers. The spiritual welfare of our charge 
is much nearer our hearts, than the temporal con- 
cerns of the society." Happy frame of simple 
confidence in an ever present, and faithful God ! 
Faith like this can never fail : exertions sus- 
tained by it, can never tire. His bosom was 



v 



134 MEMOIR OF BACON. 

not indeed, entirely exempt from the agitations 
of grief, anxieties and disappointment ; nor was 
it desirable in this state of exertion, that it 
should be : but the anchor of his hopes was cast 
deep within the veil, and secured to his mind that 
perfect' peace which passes all understanding;' 
and which ' the world can neither give nor take 
away.* He had suffered with the same equan- 
imity, a still more painful frustration of his hopes 
in the dissolution of the school for black adults, 
a few months before. The opposition made to 
the instruction of these forlorn people on various 
pretexts, had proved too violent to render it ad- 
visable any longer to persist in the attempt ; and 
it had been accordingly relinquished. 

In the benevolent cause of Sunday schools, 
it has been seen that he spared no exertions in 
his power to employ. They were indeed at one 
period too great either for his health, or for the 
proper discharge of his more secular duties. 
The possibility of erring on this ground, was 
however, seasonably perceived by himself, and 
led to a more proportionate distribution pf his 
time among the various duties of his station. 
But the fact requires to be distinctly stated, as 
suggesting considerations of great practical im- 
portance, that more than the whole amount of 
time spent in these labours, was redeemed from 
the imperceptible waste which mere indolence, 
or unprofitable engagements had formerly caus- 
ed in that invaluable talent ! His pecuniary 



MEMOIR OF BACON. 135 

contributions are known to have been numerous, 
and liberal. But their full amount, will not be 
revealed until the day when all secrets are to be 
disclosed, and good works receive their infinite 
reward. 

But no single species of the fruits of so ex- 
alted a piety, can flourish and ripen alone. In 
the very constitution of the society which ani- 
mated and directed the efforts made in the cause 
of Sunday schools, distinct provision had been 
made for the circulation of the scriptures, and 
religious tracts. And both these efficient aux- 
iliaries of the work, were employed with the 
happiest effects. Several instances might be 
related, of the obvious instrumentality of the 
tracts circulated in every part of the county, in 
conjunction with the establishment of schools, 
in reforming the vicious, i converting the sinner 
from the error of his ways, and hiding a multi- 
tude of sins/ Of a little tract entitled " Three 
Dialogues," from its contents, he observed, 
•• It has been the means of stopping a persecu- 
tion which had been raised against a good Sun- 
day school teacher. It fell into the hands of a 
mere moralist, who supposed his correct deport- 
ment would save his soul. The tract alarmed 
him : and thinking he must do something for the 
persecuted christians in his neighbourhood, he 
went to a leader of the opposition and told him, 
that ' lie might well be alarmed, since even him- 
self had become so on reading that tract/ The 



lot) MEMOIR OF BACON. 

persecutor admitted , if so good a man, as his 
moral neighbour, had begun to think himself 
wrong, and the praying people right, there might 
be some truth in what those people said ; and 
he would let them alone." The tracts presented 
as premiums to the children were commonly 
read by their parents, and often produced impres- 
sions on their minds of a salutary character. 

In the conclusion of this connected view of 
Mr. Bacon's engagements in these arduous ser- 
vices, it is due to the fidelity of his divine Lord 
and Master, and proper for the encouragement 
of all who shall imitate his example, to state that 
he found in his labours a present reward, sur- 
passing his boldest petitions, and nearly preclud- 
ing the perception of his heaviest trials. The 
economy of divine providence in this respect, 
seems to be nearly uniform. The most faithful 
and laborious of the Lord's servants are refresh- 
ed with the richest consolations of the gospel, 
even in the midst of their labours. Mr. Bacon 
realised a large reward in knowing himself to 
be the instrument of gathering much immediate 
i fruit to life eternal.' A number of souls were 
brought to -sincere repentance, and saved from 
i heir sins, ' by the washing of regeneration and the 
renewing of the Holy Ghost/ through his direct 
instrumentality. A still greater number were 
introduced into the same holy state by the me- 
dium of the institutions which he had been prin- 
cipally active in forming, and the means of grace 



MEMOIR OF BACON* 137 

which had through these means, been placed 
within their reach. He witnessed likewise, in 
the more general effects of the system, a visi- 
ble improvement of the moral habits, and the 
religious condition of the many hundreds of 
immortals, connected with the schools ; and in a 
still fainter degree, of the whole districts over 
which they extended. He realised moreover, the 
holy satisfaction of perceiving that many of his 
prayers for spiritual and other blessings, personal 
and general, were expressly answered : and that 
the whole cause was the especial care of the in- 
finite God, • whom unseen, he ? constantly ' loved/ 
worshipped, and communed with. He enjoyed 
the testimony of his own conscience, and the 
witness of the divine Spirit in his heart, that he 
was doing the will of God, and acting with his 
approbation. i It was God that justified' both 
him and his work : ' and who was he that could 
condemn ?? But there are spiritual communica- 
tions of a higher and richer order, made to the 
faithful servants of the Redeemer, even in the 
present world; consisting in the direct, and 
abundant out-pouring of those ineffable comforts 
of his grace, that form the most perfect foretaste 
of Heaven itself which the human mind is capa- 
ble of realising on earth. These effusions of the 
divine Spirit are not always essential to the sane- 
tification of the soul : they are scarcely tasted 
in this world, by many of the sincere and hum- 
ble followers of the Lamb ; but are seldom with« 

18 



138 Memoir of bacon. 

held entirely from those who devote the whole 
soul, aud voluntarily incur painful sacrifices, in 
his service. They are at once a divine attes- 
tation of approbation to eminent fidelity, and 
one of the most animating motives to more vigo- 
rous advances, and unwearied perseverance. A 
few extracts from Mr. Bacon's private diary, 
will furnish the most intelligible illustration of 
this peculiar privilege of the faithful believer, 
and furnish an additional testimony of the good- 
ness and faithfulness of the God whom he serves, 
in repaying into his bosom ' an hundred fold' for 
all he can resign or suffer in obedience to his 
commands, ' in the present life ;' without im- 
pairing his title to the ' life everlasting/ 

"November 1st, 1818, Sunday.— To day 1 
superintended the Sunday school in York. There 
were present, about one hundred and ninety 
scholars and a sufficient number of teachers. I 
received an unspeakable blessing ; being several 
times so filled with holy joy that I could hardly 
refrain from proclaiming it aloud. This school 
is a glorious vineyard. Ohthatfrod would con- 
tinue to help ! I have ever thought from the 
first, that it would be the means of a revival of 
religion in York, if we are faithful to our trust. 
The members ' go forth into the streets aud lanes 
of the city' and into the ' highways and hedges,' 
and compel, by affection and entreaty, the ' poor, 
the maimed, the halt and the blind' to ' come in ;' 
and ' still there is room.' 11 



MEMOIR OS BACON. 13$ 

"November &£d. — Have good reason to be- 
lieve, that among the persons truly converted to 
God, during the week past, are five Sunday 
school scholars. Two others are convinced of 
their ruined state, and deeply distressed. 
Thanks be to God for his glorious work. Oh 
that he would multiply the victories of his grace 
and love, until they reach the ends of the earth !" 
" January 17th, 1819. — Dillsburg. Came from 
York to this place yesterday, to meet the people 
and form a Sunday school. We were obliged 
to struggle with many discouragements ; but 
through the goodness of God, succeeded. I felt 
his presence, and am sensible that he blest his 
own cause through my instrumentality. At night, 
met a few devout souls of the place, in a prayer 
meeting. We had a season of blessings. Oh 
the joy of communion with God ! Oh his un- 
speakable goodness !" 

" January 24th. — Yesterday, I gave a full 
explanation to my * * * * # -. brethern, of my 
conduct in relation to the schools ; which satis- 
fied them, and restored christian harmony be- 
tween us. I do sincerely love them as brethern 
in Christ Jesus. The reconciliation was follow- 
ed with a present and a precious blessing, to my 
soul. To day, — at morning prayer, in church, 
and at the Sunday school, I drank largely of the 
consolations of the Holy Spirit ; and had much 
freedom of intercourse with God. My spirit 



14*0 MEMOIR OF BACON. 

Wrestles with him for sanctifying grace. Oh that 
God would make me wholly his own V 9 

" January 31st. — Was at the * * * * school 
in the morning. Addressed the audience and 
the scholars ; returned at one o'clock, to the 
York school. I became much exhausted ; am 
convinced I ought not to go so long without food, 
as I frequently do on the Sabbath. Oh I feel 
these schools a burden to my body ; but not to 
my soul! My body is weak: — but God blesses my 
soul. I have much of his sensible presence, 
and am willing to suffer on, my three score 
years, or less or more, as it pleases him. God 
is good. God is love. Oh that God would 
bless me still more and more; — that he would 
bless me now, — I have such an hungering and 
thirsting after his righteousness !" 

" February 22d. — For three days past I have 
been entirely occupied in travelling through dif- 
ferent parts of the county, and forming new 
schools. I last night, found my exertions dur- 
ing the day had nearly destroyed me — and was 
even apprehensive that I should not be able to 
survive ? till the morning. To day, — my strength 
is considerably restored. This evening in prayer 
meeting, realised a foretaste of Heaven indeed. 
Such an out-pouring of blessings I have scarcely 
pver known before." 

" March 30tb. Since the 5th of the pre- 
sent month, my Sabbaths have been spent in our 
Buoday schools, and have been uniformly bless- 



MEMOIR OP BACON* 141 

eel to my comfort and edification. The labour 
lias been severe ; but soul and body have been 
abundantly sustained : for which, I here record 
my thanks to God." 

"July 18lh, 1819.— During the past month, 
I was much occupied in visiting distant schools, 
and had a laborious season. But while abroad, 
I was always happy, — filled with zeal and love j 
although now conscious of having been unfaith- 
ful. In this way God was pleased to afford me 
support and help when labouring in his name, 
and for the advancement of his cause." 

Under date of November 28th, 1819, Mr. 
Bacon has the following entry in his journal. 

" Our Board of Managers met this evening 
for the transaction of much interesting business* 
I have often felt the want of something appro* 
priate to sing on these occasions, and to day 
drew up the following lines." They are here 
inserted, as closely connected with the subject of 
this chapter, and in some measure, illustrative of 
it. In the devout and evangelical spirit which 
they breathe, consists their principal merit. 

"HYMN, 

For the Meeting of Sunday school Mana- 
gers." 

" Here, Saviour, let us take 

Fresh counsel, at thy feet ; 
And by thy Spirit's presence, make 

Our souls in one to meet.— 



143 MEMOIR OF BACOA. 

Here, guide us by thy word, 

And by thy Spirit too : 
Give hearts to know thy will, O Lord ; 

Give willing hands to do. 

Be thou the mind to plan, 

Be thou the mouth to speak ; 

And while thy great designs we scan, 
Oh ! keep our spirits meek. 



Lord, give us all thy mind ; 

For less will not suffice ; 
That we may leave our sins behind, 

And daily upward rise. — 

In faith we'll plant the seed, 
And water with our tears ; 

Christ then will bid the increase speed, 
And banish all our fears." 






MEM01K OF BACON. 143 



CHAP. VI. 

The connected view afforded iii the forego- 
ing chapter, of Mr, Bacon's engagements in the 
cause of Sunday schools, required a considerable 
anticipation of the period to which the narrative 
now, properly reverts. 

In May and June, 1817, it appears from a 
memorandum found among his papers, that Mr. 
Bacon was engaged in the organisation of an in- 
dependent military corps, for the county of 
York; and during the following season, he con- 
tinued to discharge the duties which an official 
appointment in that service, devolved upon him. 
In August, of the same season, finding that the 
multifarious business of his profession, by expos- 
ing him to the almost constant collision of the 
worst passions, and most sinister transactions of 
the irreligious and worldly, tended unavoidably 
to distract his thoughts and impede his progress 
in spiritual life ; he entered into an arrangement 
for abandoning the business altogether. In this 
proceeding he doubtless had his eye on the 
apostolic advice, < I would have you without 
carefulness' His motives were perhaps, more 
to be commended than his judgment; and he 
was possibly, influenced more by disgust for the 
lawful business of life, which he ought to have 
overcome, than by an enlightened estimate of its 



144* MEMOIR 01- BACON* 

duties. At this date, his intention to devote his 
life to the ministry seems to have been embar- 
rassed with fewer scruples than occurred on a 
further examination of the question. But the 
providence of Heaven, in a dispensation which 
could not easily be misinterpreted or evaded, 
absolutely overruled this purpose ; and he con- 
tinued in the practice of the law for nearly two 
years afterwards ; fully satisfied, that in what, 
ever way his divine Master might intend to dis- 
pose of his services at a future period, it was 
his pleasure that he should, at present, continue 
to exercise his profession, and glorify him in 
the faithful discharge of humbler duties. But 
his thoughts were incessantly revolving the 
subject; and he ventured in a few weeks to offer 
his name to the Bishop of the Diocese, to be 
entered on the list of candidates for orders in 
this act he was conscious of proceeding with 
due circumspection ; but was still, undecided, as 
to the ulterior course, which the intimations of 
providence might afterwards require him to 
take. 

The whole of Mr. Bacon's time, not spent 
in the necessary business of his office, and at the 
bar, became towards the latter end of the year, 
not only engrossed, but overcharged both with 
stated and occasional religious exercises per- 
formed either for his own improvement, or for 
the salvation of others. 



MEMOIR OP BACON. 14S 

Mr. Bacon eminently exemplified in the al- 
tered course of his life, the inspired description 
of those in regard to whom, ' old things 9 are 
said ' to have passed away, and all things' to 
have ' become new :' but this characteristic of 
the child of God was in nothing more unequivo- 
cally evinced than in the exact distribution, and 
entirely new appropriation of the several di- 
visions of his time. No talent, with the improve- 
ment of which we are charged, excepting only 
the means of salvation directly connected with 
our redemption and sanctification, is more val- 
uable, or capable of being applied to a higher 
use than this. The different duties to which 
the hours of every day were successively 
consecrated, and the means by which his early 
progress in grace was so remarkably accelera- 
ted, are exhibited in a form of rules constructed 
on truly christian principles, which he adopted 
on the first of October, 1817- He entitles them, 

" Rules to be observed every day, by S. Bacon, 
attorney at law : 

" Rise at six from October to March ; and 
from April to September, at five. Ill health and a 
habit of study require this degree of indulgence* 
Earlier rising would be injurious to me. 

" Attend to morning devotion. 

" Pay the proper attention to my personal 
comfort and appearance ; and breakfast, 

49 



146 memoir of BAcdsr; 

u Examine my day-book and docket, for the 
business of the day. 

" Attend diligently to official business and 
legal studies during the day; — taking care to 
dine lightly, drink nothing but water, and main- 
tain constantly, a watchful and praying spirit ; 
to ' rejoice ever-more, pray without ceasing and 
in every thing give thanks/ Religion is not to 
make me neglect my business, but do it with 
more fidelity and diligence. 

" Take very little or no supper ; as it is apt 
to cloud the mind, and hinder the life of my 
evening devotions. 

" After supper, attend in my office till seven 
o'clock, to any remaining business, and close 
the worldly concerns of the day; taking care 'to 
have a place in my office for every thing; and 
every thing in its place/ 

" At seven o'clock, go to some place of social 
prayer or worship. This let me do, because we 
are exhorted not to forsake the assembling 'of our- 
selves together / and because I find, by expe- 
rience, that those who thus ' wait upon the Lord 
shall renew their strength/ Let me never at- 
tend these meetings because I think myself bet- 
ter than my neighbours, but to implore my Fa- 
ther in Heaven to preserve me from yielding to 
the temptations which surround me, and which 
abound within me. 

"Return to my lodgings, and spend the remain- 
der of the evening in reading and meditation. 



MEMOIR OF BACON. 147 

* l Attend to my evening devotion. 

" Finally, never let me permit a known 
duty to be omitted ; and let me do all the good 
1 can. Even amidst the business of the day, 
I find time to do much for the benefit of myself 
and others ; but often want the mind and means. 
Let me constantly pray for both." 

The Bible was his constant companion ; and 
its study filled up nearly all those short and bro- 
ken intervals of time, which the most systematic 
routine of duties will always leave unoccupied,, 
Every charitable association with which he was 
connected, furnished, in the necessary meetings of 
its members, frequent occasions of social prayer 
and praise ; which he seldom suffered to pass 
without due improvement. Hence, the different 
charities, in the promotion of some, or all of 
which, a large proportion of the respectable in- 
dividuals of the place were united, became 
strongly associated in their minds, with the ho- 
liest services, and the highest considerations of 
religion. His humility, aided by an enlighten- 
ed knowledge of the duties of christians in 
different relations, effectually restrained him, 
from invading the sphere exclusively alloted by 
the Divine Head of the church, to his commis- 
sioned ministers. His circumspection and ten- 
derness of conscience, even while actuated by 
the most ardent zeal, and, in the exercise of his 
characteristic energy prosecuting the most dif- 
ficult services,, were such as seldom to furnish 



i4& MEMOIR OV BACON. 

even a plausible pretext for offence or reprehen- 
sion, to his most vigilant opposers. His exam- 
ple in this respect how worthy, and yet how 
difficult, of imitation ! Few have accomplished, 
in so short a time, and at so early a period of 
their religious life, so much good : and vastly 
fewer have been happy enough not to neutralise 
or reverse much of the good they have effected, 
by a larger mixture of indiscretion. This fact 
is the more remarkable, as Mr. Bacon's tempera- 
ment was ardent in the extreme ; and he seldom 
suffered the time exactly proper for acting, to 
pass unimproved. But the true reason of his 
happiness in this respect, is explained by another 
fact, from which the same result may always be 
anticipated. Mr. Bacon 'committed all his 
ways to the Lord; 9 even the particular details of 
his engagements, secular and religious, were 
faithfully commended to the divine blessing. 
He knew it to be the privilege of believers, to 
be directed in all their paths, by the unerring 
guidance of the holy Spirit. This privilege he 
humbly embraced ; and his confidence was never 
disappointed. 

From the date of his conversion, to his death, 
Mr Bacon's health was delicate ; but owing to 
the peculiar organisation of his system, he was 
able always to recover after a short repose, from 
a state of almost entire exhaustion of body and 
mind, and seldom did he engage in any service 
for the honour of God, or the good of men 



MEMOIR OF BACON. 149 

which admitted sufficient scope for exertion, 
without proceeding to the utmost limit of his 
strength. To this cause is to be traced in a 
principal degree, the occasional prevalence of 
the imagination over the soberer faculties of the 
mind, manifested in his speculations on several 
of the incidents of his religious experience. A 
sound body is essentially necessary to the exact 
and regular exercise of the nicely balanced 
mechanism of the understanding: and of this 
blessing Mr. Bacon was at the present time de- 
prived. But it may be said in justice to his 
character, and in truth, that no man's piety was 
of a more rational kind than that which he ha- 
bitually displayed, after a few months' expe- 
rience had worn away the novelty of a religious 
life. The practical principles of few christians 
were more exactly ascertained to themselves, or 
their judgment better enlightened by the lessons 
of revelation, or more cautiously exercised on 
every question of duty, than his. He might 
perhaps, unnecessarily call up to his recollection 
the shapeless images of a dream that were bet- 
ter forgotten ; and might borrow from it instruc- 
tion that were better derived from other sources. 
But even this infirmity was, to say the least, inno- 
cent in its effects,— it might to him, have proved 
even a beneficial one. 'His dreams,' he ap- 
pears to have ' told as dreams ;' and never in the 
least to have confounded their fancied interpre- 
tations with the predictions of prophecy, or the 



150 MEMOIR OF BACON. 

authority of the word of God. Even of his 
dreams it may be said, that they evince the strong 
and prevailing influence of pious feelings in his 
mind. Happy for those who would too severely 
censure this fault, rather of a disordered body 
than mind, if their own thoughts and affections 
are, like his, so habitually given to their Saviour 
and to celestial themes, that the imagination 
shall retain its hold upon them, when that is the 
only faculty which wakes in the sleeping soul! 
He occasionally exhibited a similar propensity 
which is easily traced to the same causes, to 
fancy himself the subject of waking visions, and 
supernatural impressions. But it is not known 
that his judgment, except in two or three in- 
stances, became the spurt of illusions of this 
nature ; and those occurred in the earlier stages 
of his religious experience, when it was more 
difficult to separate the actings of grace, from 
the impressions of the fancy.* 

On a visit to Philadelphia in May, 1818, as 
a delegate to the convention of the Episcopal 
church of the diocese, either through mere de- 
pression of spirits, or from the influence of pro- 
bably, very insufficient reasons, he was nearly 
induced to withdraw his name from the list of 
theological candidates. This intention was, how- 
ever, overruled by the very seasonable advice 
of two of his clerical friends, to whom he com- 

* See Appendix, Note VI. 



MEMOIR OF BACON. 151 



municated Ms scruples. "X rejoice/ 9 he re- 
marks, in reference to Ills conduct on this occa- 
sion, " that I did not take my own way : and 
from this period I was more and more confirmed 
in my purpose to enter the ministry." 

During the summer, a small portion only of 
his time was devoted to the study of systematic 
theology. But his rapid advancement in a prac- 
tical acquaintance with the scriptures, and the 
important science of experimental religion, 
more than compensated his want of opportunity 
for more abstract studies. He learnt in what 
manner to offer the prayer of faith, to obtain the 
victory over the world, to mortify the corrup- 
tions of his nature, and copy into his life the 
example of his Lord. Nor was his light ' hid 
under a bushel.' He } glorified his heavenly 
Father/ by an unstudied but conspicuous ex- 
hibition in his own character, of the power of 
his grace. A number of souls were evidently 
turned ' from darkness to light/ by his means, dur- 
ing this period ; and rich and numerous were 
the blessings, which through his exhortations, 
and prayers, were communicated to the little 
ilock of believers who formed his chosen, and 
principal associates. In a letter dated October 
15th, he writes to a confidential christian friend, 
"My cup is full to overflowing. Help me to 
praise my merciful Saviour. A brother of mine 
lately visited me. He was a confirmed deist. 
Being older than myself, I neglected, for some 



lfr& MEMOIR OF BACOK. 

time, to invite him to our stated prayer meetings 
fearing the ridicule of sacred things which 
might he expected from his satirical tongue. 
But a sense of duty compelled meat length to take 
him along. We went into meeting : in prayer^ 
he was the only one present who stood. He 
kept his position as erect as a post ; until, as I 
was kneeling near him, I pulled him by the coat, 
and he came upon his knees. — God not only 
gave me utterance, but enabled me to wrestle in 
faith for his salvation. The next morning he 
came very early into my room, begging me to 
pray for him. I did so; and kept him with me 
about twelve days. In the mean time he was 
born both,, ' of the water and of the Spirit.' 
He partook of the holy sacrament of the Lord's 
supper, and has left me, and all his sins be- 
hind.- 

The brother referred to in this extract, has 
*ince exhibited a life of consistent piety, and 
been usefully employed in a public capacity, on 
the coast of Africa. 

Mr. Bacon's engagements during the remain- 
der of the autumn and winter, continued much 
of the same character as for the last preceding 
half year. But, having resolved on drawin 
his secular concerns to a close as soon as possi 
ble, and devoting the residue of his life to the 
work of the sanctuary, he much better sustained 
the character of an intrepid and indefatigable 
evangelist, during this period, than that of the 



MEMOIR OF BACON* 1SS 

profession which he was shortly to lay aside. 
He had associated with him, a gentleman of the 
bar, into whose hands he gradually relinquished 
the extensive practice which he formerly had in 
the county. In this period he made several in- 
effectual attempts to redeem, from the exactions 
of his secular business, a few weeks, at least, to 
be employed in the retired and uninterrupted 
study of theology. But the cause of christian 
benevolence in various forms, preferred such 
numerous and pressing demands on his exertions, 
and his counsel, as wholly to fill up the inter- 
vals of his leisure from more secular duties : and, 
until the ensuing month of May, he had not ad- 
vanced beyond the threshold of theological read- 
ing. During the winter of 1818 — 19, and the 
ensuing spring, he seldom devoted less than 
three days in the week to the formation and su- 
perintendence of Sabbath schools. The month 
of May was passed in Philadelphia ; where, by 
changing the scene of his labours, and varying 
their customary routine, he regained a better 
habit of health than he had before enjoyed since 
the commencement of his religious life. The 
acquaintance which, during this season, he cul- 
tivated with an extensive circle of humble and 
devoted christians, for which that city is pre-emi- 
nently distinguished, proved, in many respects, 
serviceable to him. It cemented with souls of 
congenial character and feelings, an union, and 
laid the foundation for a future correspondence 

go 



154 MEMOIR OF BACOX. 

which often in his subsequent labours and trials, 
greatly assisted to sustain his weary hands, and 
animate his drooping spirits. He learnt at the 
same time, to discriminate more accurately be- 
tween mere animal emotions and the kindlings 
of the imagination, and those pure and sanctify- 
ing influences of the Spirit of God on the mind, 
which like a deep and perennial fountain, 'spring 
up in the soul, to life everlasting.' He returned 
to York about the first of June. 

Soou afterwards, he drew up, and published 
iu the Gazettes of York, a series of essays ex 
planatory of the objects of the American Coloni- 
zation Society, with a special view to its vindica 
tion from the exceptions which had been ex- 
pressed by many, even of the friends of the black 
population of this country. Mr. Bacon had for 
several years, been a useful member of the Abo- 
lition Society of Pennsylvania. His benevo 
lence was, however, of too disinterested a cha- 
racter to suffer him to withhold from any good 
cause, the support and patronage which he could 
afford it. At an early period of the operations of 
the Colonization Society, he perceived that their 
measures were inspired by the same philanthro- 
phic principle as those of the Abolition Society : 
and conceived them to be much more practica- 
ble, more systematic, and equally expansive in 
their final objects. He perceived likewise, that 
these objects were not well understood even by 
his brethren of the Pennsylvania Society j and 



MEMOIR OF BACON. 155 

that many prejudices existed which had their foun- 
dation wholly in this ignorance. His essays were 
therefore very seasonable, and happily adapted 
to accomplish the ends of the writer. It was 
unfortunate that the imperfections of their style, 
owing to the haste employed in their production, 
tended to restrict their publication to more cir- 
cumscribed limits than from the facts which they 
embodied, and the soundness of the reasonings 
they deserved. 

The months of June and July, were passed 
in York with fewer interruptions to his theologi- 
cal studies either from business or charitable 
engagements, than any former period. The sa- 
cred scriptures formed the principal object of his 
attention at this time ; and the course of his 
reading on other subjects in divinity, although 
limited, was in conformity to the regulations of 
the canons, and of the House of bishops of the 
Protestant Episcopal church, and pursued under 
the particular direction of the Rev. Professor 
Turner, of the General Theological Seminary, 
who spent several months of this summer in Phil- 
adelphia. His extreme anxiety, to bring himself 
to the sacred work as one that * needs not to be 
ashamed f his incessant and earnest cries for the 
teachings of the divine Spirit ; the deep interest 
of his affections in all evangelical subjects ; his 
high sense of the dignity and responsibility of 
the charge ; and above all, the entire devotion 
of his soul to the pursuit of God's glory, and 



156 MEMOIR OF BACON. 

the salvation of men, stimulated his progress in 
these preparatory studies in a measure altogether 
surpassing that of his tftne or advantages. His 
theological knowledge may be properly regarded 
as consisting of a deep practical impression of 
the most important truths of revelation, upon 
his mind. It was unmixed with human theo- 
ries ; because derived directly from the purest of 
all sources : it was calculated for direct applica- 
tion to the highest purposes of devotion, and 
spiritual improvement; because sought express- 
ly for these ends, and in the use of these very 
means. 

In the month of August, he again repaired to 
Philadelphia to complete his preparations for 
ordination, and assume the sacred office. He 
had nearly disposed of all his secular connex- 
ions with the world at this time, and enjoyed 
in the increased abstraction of his thoughts from 
temporal cares and labours, a repose of soul 
which eminently comported with the sacred ness 
of his pursuit, and the solemnity of the approach- 
ing scenes. IJe thus had the opportunity of 
more fully ascertaining his true motives, and of 
maturing his views, in devoting himself to the 
ministerial service, and confirming his purposes 
in relation to its duties. The use which he 
made of this opportunity, as relates to his own 
spiritual improvement, will be seen in the ex- 
tracts which are to follow from his journal. 



MEMOIR OF BACON. 157 

In the latter part of the summer of 1819, 
the managers of the Philadelphia Bible Society, 
determined to execute a purpose which they had 
for some time cherished, of diffusing more exten- 
sively in the interior of the state, the benefits of 
their institution, than they had ever attempted 
before. It became necessary to employ in this 
service, a person of peculiar qualifications. The 
views of the board were soon directed to Mr. 
Bacon, as the individual presented to their choice 
by the especial providence of Him to whom 
their prayers had been fervently addressed for 
the means of accomplishing their important ob- 
ject. His want of holy orders, and a number of 
obligations of a secular nature, appeared to him- 
self and others, for a time, to present an impas- 
sable obstacle to his engaging in this mission. 
But the last were removed in a way so clearly 
providential, as to induce a very serious inquiry 
whether it had not become a duty to apply for 
ordination at an earlier period than he had before 
thought compatible with a due preparation for 
the ministerial office. After seriously weigh- 
ing the important question, he resolved to sub- 
mit himself to the examination and advice of 
the clerical committee on whose certificate the 
Bishop of the diocese was to act, in conferring 
ordination on theological candidates* This ex- 
amination he sustained to the satisfaction of the 
committee, in the beginning of September, and 
was admitted to holy orders by the Right Rev 



158 MEMOIR OF BACON. 

Bishop White, of the diocese of Pennsylvania, 
on the fifth of the same month. 

In October of 1818, Mr. Bacon had commenc- 
ed, as a means of his private improvement, a reli- 
gious diary ; which was continued until his 
ordination, without much interruption; and, 
with more frequent intervals, from that time to 
the commencement of his last illness. The 
utility of this practice has been doubted ; but 
certainly, on insufficient grounds. A religious 
journal may indeed, be the offspring of spiri- 
tual pride, and the instrument of religious 
vanity. And which of the means of grace may 
not be corrupted by the same motives? But 
growth in grace is always aided by experience. 
And the chief advantage of a religious diary, as 
a means of spiritual improvement consists in its 
effect to fix more permanently in the memory 
and impress more effectually on the heart, the 
lessons of experience. This advantage it pos- 
sesses in a higher degree than perhaps any 
other means. The most exact and striking de- 
lineations of the character of eminent saints, 
have likewise after their decease, been drawn 
from this part of their writings, with great advan- 
tage to their successors in the christian warfare. 

Mr. Bacoir s journal seems to have been de- 
signed for the improvement or inspection of no 
person except himself. It was written with the 
most unguarded simplicity, and bears every 
characteristic of a most authentic registry of the 



MEMOIR OF BACOX. 159 

religious operations of his own mind, as it was 
affected by a singular variety of circumstances. 
So sensible did he become of the utility of the 
practice, that after nearly a year's experience of 
its advantages, he recorded an expression of re- 
gret, and self accusation for a few weeks inci- 
dental neglect of his journal. A religious diary 
secures at least one important end, — that of en- 
gaging the mind frequently, in reflecting on its 
own exercises. It likewise may have the effect 
to strengthen, by giving a distinct expression to 
the pious purposes and feelings of the heart. 
Both of these effects are directly connected 
with the growth of divine life in the soul, and 
the maintenance of a godly and holy life. 

The first entry in his journal was made, Oc- 
tober 28th, 1818. — The whole exhibits a gra- 
dual progress in his christian experience, from 
the untutored ardour of the young convert's first 
love, to its comparative maturity in a habit of de- 
vout affection, as pure as it was elevated. 

Prayer has been significantly styled the na- 
tural respiration of the new-born soul ; and the 
gently distilling influence of the divine Spirit, 
thegtherial element on which it habitually feeds. 
The subject of this memoir has been seen in a la- 
borious, but ineffectual struggle with the opposing 
principles of his nature, to hold himself to the 
stated performance of this duty, even after long 
and frequent intervals of its allowed neglect. 
But now the holy work proceeds almost without 






MEMOIR OF BACON, 



constraint, or interruption. Nearly every ex- 
pression of his feelings is blended with a fervent 
invocation to the author of all spiritual influ- 
ences, for an increase of those very desires 
which prompts his petitions. Communion with 
God, through his Son, and by the Holy Spirit,* is 
now the most delightful, and therefore an uni- 
form exercise of the soul. It is the highest end 
to which it aspires, and an employment;, in which 
could it be wholly absorbed, it would repose its 
tired energies with inconceivable delight. 

If among so many qualities peculiarly chris- 
tian as Mr. Bacon exhibited in his character, any 
one shone with pre-eminent lustre, it must be re- 
ferred to the spirit of prayer, which constantly 
informed his whole soul. Prayer was the first 
employment of his waking mind in the morning ; 
and the last of his weary thoughts, at night. So 
entirely wrought into the frame and habit of 
prayer, were the affections of his heart, that they 
seemed to pursue their accustomed employment, 
when sleep had entirely suspended the functions 
of the bodily senses. " I have remarked," he 
states, in putting down the results of his short 
experience on this subject, " that whenever I fall 
asleep at night in the exercise of a holy praying 
spirit, my soul prays through the whole night ! 
Happy slumbers ! There is little in them of 
that deep, death-like stupor which formerly char- 



Eph- II, 18- 



MEMOIR OF BACON. 161 

gcterised my sleep ; but while all the purposes 
of sleep as to the refreshment of body and 
mind, are answered, I am still sufficiently 
awake to hold communion with God. Oh that 
my soul may be confirmed in this happy frame \ v 
On another occasion : — •" In answer to prayer, I 
arose this morning with a praying; mind. For 
this blessing I earnestly entreated God, on re- 
tiring to rest. Even my sleep was a season of 
prayer." This blessed influence rested, in the 
same degree on his mind, through a season of 
severe trial arising from the perplexing cares 
of the ensuing day. 

Mr. Bacon was so highly favoured of his 
heavenly Father, as not only to receive all his 
providential dispensations with filial submission 
and gratitude ; but to be able to see the direct 
connexion of most of his comforts, and many 
of his chastisements either with his faithful per- 
formance or his neglect, of this duty. November 
14th, he thus writes : " I have been absent for 
several days in the interior. A consciousness 
of having neglected my duty towards my dying 
friend * * * ** embittered my mind. It was my 
earnest prayer, that we might both be suffered to 
meet again. God is good, and spared me to re- 
turn, and find him still alive, and apparently not 
so near his end as I expected. I repaired to his 
chamber, and spent a solemn season of prayer 
and earnest conversation with him. He feels 

his need of a Saviour, and is earnest about hi§ 

31 



162 MEMOIR OF BACON. 

soul's welfare. He appears in a good degree 
resigned. May God have mercy on him, and 
gave his soul." On bringing his professional 
business to a final close in the summer of 1819> 
he has the following entries in his journal : 

u July 14th. I am waiting in earnest prayer 
for the Lord to help me. I have used all the 
means in my power to extricate myself from this 
last pressure of my temporal affairs ; which alone 
appears to detain me in my present situation. 
But my own providence and exertions can help 
me no further. I know not what way to turn 
myself — may the Lord disperse the cloud which 
hangs over my future path. 

" July 20th. To day, a most unexpected 
deliverance has been wrought for me. A gentle- 
man of Philadelphia has voluntarily advanced 
me seven hundred dollars to enable me to leave 
the place, and enter immediately on the prose- 
cution of the important agency to which I have 
been appointed. This indeed was least expec- 
ted ! How soon the cloud has been broken — is 
dispersed — is gone ! All is plain before me. 
To what wonderful interpositions will not the 
Lord sometimes condescend, in order to convince 
us, that if we will trust him, he will help and 
protect us !" 

Mr. Bacon took great delight in social prayer 
and praise : — a privilege which he ever thoughr 
nearly connected with his comfort, and advance- 
ment in the christian life. The fervour of his af- 



MEMOIR OF BACON. 163 

fections seemed on these occasions, to be assisted 
by the gentle excitement which the presence of his 
christian friends supplied ; without feeling the re- 
straint which a large promiscuous assembly, and 
a more formal order of worship would be likely 
to produce. These seasons were sought and en- 
joyed almost every day. Often had he occasion 
to record in his diary a thankful memorial of the 
abundant blessings there dispensed to his own 
soul, and to his friends. 

It was natural that a person so constituted 
as Mr. Bacon, should, in the commencement of 
his christian experience, not only be strongly 
susceptible himself to the impressions of exter- 
nal excitements, but measure the good feelings 
of others too much by the strength of their mere 
animal emotions. Hence, he sometimes com- 
plained of the " deadness" of himself and his 
brethren, when few " sighs" and " tears," and 
external "expressions of rejoicing," were ex- 
cited in their social meetings. None has a right 
to forbid these manifestations of pious feeling : 
for strong internal sensations, whatever may be 
their nature or cause, are necessarily productive 
of visible emotions: and it fully accords both with 
the scriptures and enlightened reason, to believe 
that the Spirit of Christ can produce in the minds 
of his people, stronger and more affecting sensa* 
tions of love, rejoicing and desire, than any other 
inferior cause. The danger is in making bodily 
emotions the test of holy feeling, and aiming 



164 MEMOIR OP BACON. 

rather to move the animal spirits, than to implant 
and invigorate holy dispositions in the mind. 
The Spirit of God, without whose direct agency 
there can be no right feelings or desires in the 
heart, has his seat deep in the recesses of the 
soul : and before he animates the affections, it 
should always be remembered, that he sanctifies 
them ; and all his blessed operations tend more 
to the destruction of sin, than to the produc- 
tion of* present rapture. But both effects result, 
to a certain extent, from the same divine influ- 
ence. Hence the command to " rejoice ever- 
more ;" and among the enumerated fruits of the 
spirit, are "love, joy, peace. " "The kingdom of 
Heaven is not only righteousness," but " peace 
and joy in the Holy Ghost." — Mr. Bacon has 
occasion in relation to these means of grace, to 
say at one time, "At our morning prayer meet- 
ing, I felt the Lord present to assist us all. In 
the evening service, God was likewise there 
with his blessing." On another occasion ; "At 
evening prayer meeting," " a goodly company 
was assembled. But there was little life: no 
tears, no sighs, and almost no rejoicing. I had 
great enlargement of desire and expression in 
prayer." Soon after : " I was not at our little 
meeting tonight. I regret it. I want food — and 
even hunger and thirst for the bread and waters 
of life." Again : at " social prayer meeting this 
night, T enjoyed a refreshing repast. In prayer 
ancj exhortation my feelings and desires were 



MEMOIR OF BACON* 16(1 

carried strongly upwards in an unusual degree. 
Bless God, O my soul, for all his goodness. " 
Two days afterwards : ki met the little praying 
circle at * * * * * * God gave me grace to press 
the invitations of his gospel on the attention of 
the Christless. Oh he is good to them ! He is 
good to me ! To his name be all glory." — " In 
church this evening/" he again states, " the sea* 
son was precious,— most comforting to myself,— 
and profitable, I have reason to believe to many 
others. Some hard hearts certainly relented ; I 
hope were broken, for sin."—" In singing the 
lines 

c On wings of faith my soul shall fly, 
Nor tire amidst the heavenly road,' 

my mind was filled with a rich flow of consola- 
tion." On another occasion he states, " This 
evening I heard * * * * * * preach. He appeared 
animated with the spirit of grace. The season 
was more than happy, it was a glorious one. 
The power of the most High seemed to rest on 
the congregation. Some souls I fully believe 
will long remember the time. — May God be 
praised." 

Mr. Bacon never perceived that he spent, a 
greater proportion of his time in attendance on 
these social and public exercises of devotion 
than his own improvement and that of his friends, 
demanded. And on that question he was better 
able to judge and decide correctly, than any other 
person. But he was by no means insensible of the 



m 



i66 MEMOIR OF BACON* 

need of circumspection and vigilance, in guard- 
ing against the peculiar dangers from which not 
even these nurseries of prayer, and holy affec- 
tions, were exempt. The very light which they 
helped to kindle in his mind, discovered to him 
the necessity of employing in conjunction with 
them, other means of growing in grace, and at- 
taining to that state of holiness which is the 
high mark of every genuine christian. The 
succeeding extracts will well illustrate this ex- 
alting trait of his christian experience. 

"December 18th. I last night, before re- 
tiring to bed, had unusual comfort in private 
prayer, and reading the scriptures. Oh that 
God would deliver me from inbred corruptions 
My greatest desire is for more enlargement and 
faith, in private devotion. But languor and in- 
sensibility, in too great a degree, succeeded. 
This spiritual deadncss, in private — especially 
in private devotion, is alarming. I detect in 
myself a crying inconsistency. Often have I 
felt a flow of love, and comfort, in social devo- 
tion, and at the same time, not in private. This 
I attribute, partly, to my attending prayer meet- 
ings every night, and often leading in the exer- 
cises; when I in a manner, exhaust my suppli- 
cations, and have no more to ask. But private 
prayer is most profitable, — God grant it may 
prove to me the most delightful duty." Again : 
tf I thank God I am getting to feel the same de- 



MEMOIR OF BACON. I67 

light in private prayer, and the study of the 
Bible, which 1 formerly possessed." 

The praying christian is always stimulated 
to perseverance in this duty, by a strong desire 
after the holy comforts of divine grace. Such 
was manifestly a constant motive of his ardent 
supplications, in the mind of Mr Bacon. But a 
cause no less universal, and no less effectual, is 
the deep and increasing consciousness which 
every regenerate soul possesses, of the power 
of indwelling sin, the misleading tendency of 
many of his perverse habits, and the humbling 
nature and number of his bodily, mental and spi- 
ritual infirmities. A sense of misery, and the 
want of instant help, perhaps extorts every sin- 
ner's first cries to Grod for mercy. And after 
mercy is obtained, and the soul enjoys a heaven- 
ly peace in believing, the sense of inbred cor- 
ruption, instead of being removed, is heighten- 
ed : — nay, the evil is then, indeed, first seen in 
its extent; and the dependence of the so?al on 
the influences of the holy Spirit, for health and 
salvation, first felt as it should be* Let the work 
of sanctification proceed to any degree of earthly 
perfection : the eye of the understanding will be 
proportion ably freed from its natural dimness, 
and enabled still to perceive new proofs of un- 
sanctified desires, and new traits of the aliena- 
tion of the soul from God. The evidence, 
therefore, of a regenerate heart, and of an ad-* 
vanced state of spiritual improvement which the 



168 MEMOIR OF BACON. 

believer must be expected to exhibit, is rather to 
be sought in an increasing sense of his un worthi- 
ness and imperfecta -s, than in the silence of his 
complaints, and confessions, on account of these 
evils. Mr. Bacon's complaints on this ground 
were loud and frequent. The mental anguish 
which he sometimes endured from a deep sense 
of sinfulness, required the strong supports of 
that grace which he possessed, to prevent him 
from sinking under the burden.* He was dili- 
gent, and through a constant < supply of the Spi- 
rit of grace/ in a good degree faithful, in keep, 
ing his heart. His affections arising from the 
temptations of business, and the conviction of 
much imperfection in his best obedience to the 
law of Christ, constantly increased the measure 
of his experience, and led on his mind to new 
and stronger efforts of faith, and formed it to a 
more confirmed habit of christian patience. The 
passages in his journal which follow, explain 
the exercises of his mind under these various 
exigencies of his religious experience, during 
a few of the latter months of his residence in 
York. 

" October 26th, 1818. I was this day deep- 
ly engaged in my secular business : but was ha- 
bitually sensible of the presence, and love of 
God. My heart was, however, drawn in several 

* " The burden of our sins is intolerable. " — Commu- 
nion Service, intended for the use of converted jjersons 



&IEMOIR OF BACON* 169 

instances, towards the earth. Once or twice my 
besetting infirmity, fretfulness, and impatience, 
discovered itself. This I know to be exceedingly 
displeasing to God, and pray that he would 
give me grace to overcome it* I desire to do in 
all my conduct just as my Saviour himself would 
have done. That sweet, mild, affectionate, pa- 
tient, holy temper of mind :— Oh ! 1 want it."-— 
" This day I fear has proved an unprofitable 
one. How unfaithful ! how unguarded have 
I been ! O God, I beseech thee in the name of 
Jesus Christ, to sanctify my soul, and take away 
these remnants of my corrupt nature." 

" October 27th. Still unfaithful to my God. 
I find when business presses, and I become 
thoroughly immersed in it. I lose all lively sensi- 
bility of the divine presence. I lose my praying 
frame of mind. To what changes am I hourly 
liable !" 

" October 28th. Oh, the corruptions of my 
nature ! my most earnest prayer is to be set free 
from them. I pray for sanctifying grace. I 
have this day imbibed too freely, alas ! the spirit 
of the world ; and lost much of the holy joy 
which I possessed a very few days ago. Before 
repairing to the place of prayer, this evening, I 
resolved to recover with God's help, the lost 
blessing. I have wrestled for it, and can be 
satisfied with nothing but Jesus Christ, and him 
crucified. O God, slay this propensity to sin, 
and offend thee, and fill me with the Holy 



170 MEMOIR OF BACOX. 

Grhost. My soul pants after full, free, present 
salvation. Keep me faithful unto death ; I feel 
how fatal is a single hour's neglect of watchful- 
ness. Yet the Lord is gracious, and ready at 
all times, to receive my sorrowing soul back to 
his love. ?? 

•'»' October 39th. I perceive, on reviewing 
the exercises of my mind the past day, that my 
whole heart, and soul, and strength, has not re- 
turned to Jesus Christ. It is not many days 
since my soul was raised above the earth, and 
stretching still upward towards the heights of 
salvation ; filled with holyjoy, using every oppor- 
tunity to bring sinners back to God, long- 
ing for, and fully bent on the work of the min- 
istry. I was so entirely rapt with the sweet 
theme of salvation, that nothing else could give 
me pleasure. My professional business was 
tasteless, and almost odious to me. Last Mon- 
day, commenced the county sessions. I tore 
my mind from the loved subject, and devoted 
it to my causes in court. A few hours' neglect 
of watchfulness, only, intervened, and my joy 
and comfort fled. I was not sensible of my loss, 
until like Samson, I awoke and began as usual 
to exercise my strength, and found, to my sorrow, 
it was gone. I had, through grace, felt myself a 
Samson with his hair at its full length. I 
now am a Samson shorn. No longer ago than 
last Sunday, my soul w as borne along on the full 
tide of love and glory : only four days have 



MEMOIR OF EA€ON. IJi 

elapsed and I am heavy, motionless, and unfit 
for Heaven. O my God, help me I beseech 
thee ! I ask it in the name of Jesus Christ." 

"October 31st. I feel sensibly at a dis- 
tance from my God : and am struggling against 
a host of corruptions, to approach nearer. I 
hunger, and am not satisfied. I thirst, yet can- 
not drink. My spirits are ruffled ; and I am 
far from enjoying that calm repose of soul 5 
which I lately found in leaning by faith on my 
Saviour. One cause of the disturbance of my 
feelings 1 think I understand. I lately visited 
some christian friends, whose manners did not 
accord with my spirit. One exhibited a light- 
ness of deportment, — and that disturbed me. 
Another was affected, — and that disturbed me. 
A third was apparently indifferent to the inter- 
ests of religion altogether, that tried my patience, 

God, help us all to overcome our weaknesses 
and infirmities. While I pray that the levity of 
the one, the affectation of another, and the 
coldness of a third, may be removed, let me 
pray that the peevishness of my own vile and 
abominable heart may be removed also." 

"November 2d. During the whole of this day 

1 was thronged with business of the most per- 
plexing nature, — so much so that I had no time 
to eat. Yet my passions were bound and sub- 
dued by the power of grace. God was my 
Almighty Helper, through the day. My engage- 
ments continued nearly throughout the night, 



IT'S MEMOIR OF BACON. 

Oh what do I owe God for so good a religion ! 
It is good at all times, in all places, for all men." 

" November 3d. This day I was so much 
exhausted with my labours that I nearly fainted. 
At night, business seemed a little to intermit, and 
I went to the prayer meeting. Weak in body, 
fainting in spirit Oh, my wants were many ! — r 
yet my soui had been happy through the day, 
except that the fountain of corruptions was stir- 
red, once or twice ; and I was much tried by it, 
I joined in a prayer that was offered for purify- 
ing grace, and for strength and health ; and ac- 
tually received all I asked for, before I left the 
house. Oh how refreshed even in body I wasj 
and in soul, how strengthened ! I came home 
prepared to endure my fatiguing labours with 
alacrity. Glory to God the Father, Son and 
Holy Ghost, ever, world without end/' 

" November 4th. Business was such to day 
as almost to overcome my bodily strength : but I 
still found amidst all my hurry, an occasional 
moment for spiritual reflection and ejaculatory 
prayer. I attended meeting at night, and found 
it good to be there. My soul cries out still, for 
sanctifying grace, and desires to be constantly 
moving onward towards the prize of her high 
calling* When I 'hear my friends makingexcuses 
for absenting themselves from social payer meet- 
ings, on the ground of wanting time, I cannot help 
thinking that their want of a desire hinders them 
Haoretfcan a want of time. Amidst all my bi^st 



# 



MEMOIR OF BACON. 173 

ness, as Attorney for the commonwealth, during a 
week of quarter sessions, I still find time to 
attend meeting almost every night. Oh the cold- 
ness, the backwardness of some professors! 
And their very excuses founded on such insuffi- 
cient grounds, are sins. — True, I sometimes go 
without my dinner, and am sometimes up nearly 
all night ; but can I not afford occasionally to 
exchange a trifle of perishing food for some- 
thing, to sustain the soul ? And may I not some- 
times omit to lay my body on a place of rest, 
provided I can repose my soul on Jesus? Holy 
Father, I need a fuller supply of thy grace. 
And I beseech thee in the name of Jesus, to 
give me strength of body and soul equal to all 
my trials." 

" November 5th. I have more than once 
this week, been perplexed at the dispensation 
of providence, in suffering the guilty to escape 
detection and punishment. But I desire to thank 
God that he has so far enlightened, as to enable 
me to see, that he ' ruleth in the army of Heaven 
above, and among the inhabitants of the earth,* 
and will ' cause even the wrath of men to praise 
him f and that he has made me not only to per- 
ceive but to acquiesce in his government." 

" November 9th. I have passed another busy 
day : and have been distressed with temptations 
to forsake the cause of Christ. These tempta- 
tions I invited by the langour of my desires to 
cleave to his blessed interest. It was greater 



17$ M£MOIH OF BACON, 

than I recollect for a long time past. Yet I 
strive against these suggestions. At meeting, this 
night, I obtained some relief, and was a little 
excited. I pray that the good Spirit of my God 
may not leave me in a state of hopeless deso- 
lation. Oh may he ever keep a reclaiming hold 
on my wandering heart ! ' Heal my backslid- 
ings' and draw me onward — save me from these 
temptations, and excite me to new diligence in 
the cause of Christ." 

"November lith. I left York for Gettys- 
burg, indisposed in body, and cold in spirit. 
God has now restored the first, and warmed the 
latter into life. My whole journey seemed to be 
over-ruled by his good providence. But I was 
unfaithful in all my duties, and want boldness 
in the cause of Christ." 

" November 15th. Shame, shame, is my 
part ! I suffered myself to slumber" a few mi- 
nutes, under both the sermons which I attended 
to day; owing to my fatigue in the Sunday 
school. But it is a wicked — a very vile thing to 
sleep in church. God grant me grace to act a 
better part hereafter ; and forgive me the past." 

" November 17th. I have made very little 
or no perceptible progress this day in the divine 
life. The Lord has enabled me to resist one or 
two temptations ; but Oh ! 1 am most fruitless, 
and faithless ! — I called to see poor * * * * #. 
He appears to be gaining strength, and 1 fear 
his soul grows worse, as his body gets better. 



MEMOIR OK BACo 175 

Thus it is. The near approach of death will 
make the most careless, inquisitive, often, about 
their salvation. But their feelings on the return 
of health, proclaim that they can live without a 
Saviour. — My faith is perhaps, less depressed 
to day than yesterday. But all will not do ; I 
must have more religion*" 

" November 21st. God of love, grant me 
grace to detect and expose the arts of Satan, 
and of my own wicked heart ; and to overcome 
them all through the blood and merits, and in 
the name, of Jesus Christ. I find lately the 
greatest reluctance to studying the Bible, and 
to private devotion. How often has Satan pre- 
vented me from reading the Bible at night ! It 
is suggested, that ' it is late ;' ' your health will 
suffer ; ? ' another time will do :? — and the same 
of private prayer. I do not neglect it altogether, 
but am so dead and lifeless in it that I hardly 
know what to say. — May God help me for the 
Saviour's sake. Amen." 

"December 1st. My business was today 
of a trying nature; but through grace 1 was 
carried through it without difficulty. My God 
assisted me. My haughty spirit was kept low."* 

"December 2d. On carefully reviewing; the 
two last days, I discover much unfaithfulness. 
The Lord grant me a watchful,as well as pray- 
ing spirit." 

"December 4th. I this evening was assailed 
with another powerful temptation to return to 



17t> MEMOIR OF BAUOX. 

the world. But God gave me grace to resolve 
never to do it. Lord, preserve me faithful to 
the end. — I am cold in my devotions. Oh 
that I might draw nearer to God in heart and 
in life !" 

" December 7th. At social worship, I did 
not find the Saviour precious to my soul. Yet 
I endeavoured to exhort others to be faithful, 
and sinners to repent. — The prevailing state of 
my mind is this : I desire to become holy, but 
do not strive for it as I ought. I desire to b& 
more earnest and faithful in my private devo- 
tions, but I do not faithfully employ the means 
to obtain my end ; L do uot read my 13<ble enough. 
This is certain. May God help me to worship 
him better in private ; to strive successfully for 
holiness, and to read his holy word with more 
fidelity." 

" December 9th. Alas! My spiritual wants 
are numberless; and lam almost entirely des- 
titute of faith in asking for their relief. I thank 
God that I can recollect his past goodness to me, 
when in a similar state of desolation and bar- 
renness. He caused me to pray earnestly for a 
revival of his work ; and heard me. My bonds 
were broken asunder, and my soul rejoiced in 
its recovered liberty. Through the whole of 
this day, the last spark of grace seemed to be 
expiring in my soul. Oh that God would raise 
it to a flame ! — I had some sensible aid in our 
meeting this evening. Come, Holy Ghost ; come 



MEMOIR OF BACON. 177 

quickly ; come and give my spirit rest — not from 
labour, but from sin." 

"December 11th, How difficult I find it to 
keep my mind staid on Jesus Christ ! This day 
I have suffered much from wandering thoughts, 
and wandering desires. O God, found and fix 
my wayward soul on the ' Rock Christ Jesus/ — 
My brother * * * * * is with me. It appears 
that I was the instrument of his conversion. 
But he is certainly nearer his God than I am* 
He is more humble, fervent, and faithful. How 
great a change has God wrought in him ! How 
much has he done for us both l" 

"December 28th. The court commenced* 
Business was urgent; but i have great reason 
to thank God for the aid he has afforded me in 
the labours of the day. Our meeting at night 
was a refreshing -one." 

" January 1st. 1819. God grant that the year 
which begins to day, may advance me to many 
new degrees of grace and holiness. I must 
accuse myself of great coldness : but my de- 
sires are for more warmth of affection. Oh for 
grace to proceed ' from strength to strength, 
until I appear at last in Zion, before God \ 9 — > 
Especially I ask for grace and strength, to pass 
safely through the labours and troubles of the 
ensuing week." 

u January 4th. This day the quarter ses- 
sions commenced: it has proved to me a sore 

and tiresome one indeed; but God, in manifest 

S3 



178 MEMOIR OF BACON. 

answer to prayer, gave me a sufficient supply of 
bodily and spiritual health." 

"January /th. I know I deserve the wrath 
of God, for the coldness of my heart, and the 
irritability of ray disposition. It is my grief, 
that I am so unlike Christ. How long, Lord, 
how long shall my unfruitfulness, and propensity 
to sin, continue !" 

" January 8th. Still I live without produc- 
ing fruit to the glory of God. I have this day 
remained at a distance from him, and what is 
still worse, have at times felt less disposition to 
return to him than usual. — I find the arrange- 
ments of my business have involved me in con- 
nexions which are likely to prove a sad snare to 
me. I doubt much whether I did right in form 
ing them." 

"January 11th. Business is still urgent. — 
My faults are, a neglect of watchfulness, and of 
my Bible, — coldness in my private devotions, — 
and indulging too long, in sleep, in the morn- 
ing. Against these evils, let me watch and 
pray with double diligence." 

" January 12th* My soul is like the wintry 
heath. How guilty a wretch I am ! How prone 
by nature, and how bound by habit, to sin ! Bit- 
terly do I regret that I deferred the work of re- 
ligion in youth, to this period of my life ! But, 
in vain. A life of sin and guilt is so far passed : 
and the best I can now hope, is to offer t& 
God the remnants of my life, health, and facul- 



MEMOIR OF BACON, 179 

ties, so long misapplied. O God, forgive thy 
servant, for his Saviour's sake." 

" January 20th. Found an opportunity to 
give explanations, and attempt to conciliate the 
favour of some of my * ** * * brethren whose af- 
fections have been much alienated from me in con- 
sequence of the misconstruction put on some of 
my expressions and conduct Through God's 
blessing, I partially succeeded. The most effec- 
tual means I employed were the christian's ar- 
guments,— tears and entreaties." 

"January 29th. I am mercifully spared, 
again to record the mercies of God, and my un- 
worthy use of them, another day. I obtained 
some relief from a burden which I have too long 
carried, in being able to weep for my sins, and 
those of a corrupt world,— I was yesterday, and 
the day before, shorn of my strength, almost im- 
perceptibly. My soul is again toiling to reach 
the heights of Pisgah. Oh for a view of my 
promised inheritance !" 

u February 2d. This day I had business 
to transact, in which I found the evident help 
and presence of God. Our devotions in the 
meeting for prayer, were cold and inanimate. 
We are all 'filled 'with our own ways!' The 
Lord have mercy on us, and save us from f hard- 
ness of heart, and contempt of thy word and 
commandment.'" 

H February 11th. We are altogether a cold 
and icy people. We want afresh effusion of 



180 MEMOIR OF BACON. 

the Holy Spirit. Many of my brethren mani- 
fest surprising indifference. I am indeed sorely 
disquieted for them. O Lord, send them thy 
salvation \" 

" March 30th. For some time past, I have 
suffered my business too much to harrass and 
distract my mind. I find it sometimes, not only 
unpleasant, but disgusting. But this is owing 
to the wrong state of my heart : and at seasons, 
I have been able to overcome it. It was not the 
fault of religion, but my want of more; and ne- 
glecting to exercise proper watchfulness." — 
" My very profession is a snare to me. The 
instrument with which I exercise it, is the mind, — 
the very faculty in which my religion itself has 
its seat. Often, when my affections have been 
kindled to a holy fervour, and my heart tilled 
with divine love, have I applied my mind to the 
investigation of legal principles, 'till it has he- 
come entangled in the mazes and subtleties of 
the law, and I have found myself propbrtiona- 
bly dead to spiritual things, and the cause of 
Christ. In this, nearly every other profession 
has the advantage of my own. Nothing con- 
vinces me more perfectly of the truth of the 
christian religion, as revealed in the Bible, than 
the utter contrast formed by the Spirit of Christ 
as exhibited in his followers, and the spirit of 
the world, as manifested in the carnal mind. 
The difference is as apparent as that between 
light and darkness. They are perfect incompat- 






MEMOIR OF BACON. 181 



ibles : the prevalence of either, entirely excludes 
the other."* 

" July 18th. During the whole of the last 
month I was quite too cold, and distant from 
God. My mind was so occupied with the 
changes in my circumstances, and so wounded 
by ill treatment from an unexpected quarter, 
that I found it required a greater effort than I 
was careful to make, to concentrate it on God. 
There is, however, no excuse for unfaithfulness; 
nor do I in the least justify myself for thus wan- 
dering from a God of infinite ability to protect 
me from all temptations. I bless God that he 
has reclaimed me." 

" August 6th. For the last ten days, I have 
been much tried ; and several times lost my re- 
liance on God, He nevertheless appeared, — and 
somewhat remarkably, for my deliverance. Once 
I found myself evidently under his displeasure ; 
but his promises restored peace and joy to my 
mind. How have my obligations to him accu- 
mulated !" 

"August 20th. I do earnestly pray for a will 
more resigned to the dispensations of my heaven- 
ly Father. My besetting sin is a captious and 
complaining temper — the very opposite of chris- 

* An inspired Apostle referred to this evidence as to a 
well known and obvious fact, in the inquiries, " What fel- 
lowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness ? And what 
communion hath light with darkness ? And what concord 
hath Christ with Belial ?' ? 



182 MEMOIR OF BACON. 

tian meekness, and patience. Oh for grace to 
overcome it ; and to do all the will of God \" 

Besides the burden of indwelling sin, and 
the temptations growing out of his connexions 
with an ensnaring world, and the nameless 
' crafts and assaults of the Devil/ — from neither 
of which, was he at any time many hours exempt, 
Mr. Bacon was obliged during the same period, 
to struggle incessantly against many bodily in- 
firmities. His complaints were complicated, and 
of such a nature as to excite his nervous system 
to a constant state of diseased action. When 
this fact is considered, in connexion with the 
other circumstances which have been adverted 
to, it will be a cause of admiration, that he was 
enabled to preserve so good a degree of equa- 
nimity. In the whole of the period embraced 
by the foregoing extracts from his journal, we 
perceive little or nothing of that dull and listless 
depression of spirits, under which he formerly la* 
boured. This infirmity resulted, perhaps, chiefly 
from unsound health : but a sickly mind in his 
«;ase, as in most others, co-operated with a disor- 
dered body ; and, both the principles and the spi- 
rit of the gospel concur to disallow it. And this 
holy religion was, through the grace of God, suffi- 
ciently operative in Mr. Bacon's heart, to pre- 
vent a recurrence of so painful a condition of the 
mind. Even the infirmities of believers are 
sanctified to their good : and this blessed effect we 
are sometimes permitted to see, w ithout taking 



MEMOIR OF BACOX. 183 

into view the retributions of a future world, 
Mr Bacon found occasion to say, when exhaus- 
ted with fatigue and much indisposed, "my ill- 
ness has not been without its use to me. It 
brought me back to a sense of absolute depen- 
dence on my God, and a closer union with my 
Saviour — and thus has been the means of re- 
storing me to my religion, from which I had 
wandered, during the preceding week. The 
words of my Lord, 4 Fear not ; it is I ;' and, I * am 
the living bread f gave me unspeakable com- 
fort." "Returning from Lewisburg," he after- 
wards mentions, "my health sustained a severe 
injury. I was indisposed through the day. But 
my soul obtained a blessing. My God seems to 
cherish and uphold me." 

The unsettled state of his health, and a- 
habitual affection of the system, tending to 
epileptic spasms, obliged him to be constantly 
apprehensive of a speedy dismission from the 
world. Without in the least abridging his plans 
of usefulness, this circumstance was made tlia 
means of invigorating his zeal, and hastening his 
progress through every labour, and every stage 
of preparation for the dread event. Present duty 
was always the object which filled his mind, and 
engrossed his time. Future labours, and future 
trials, and the time, manner, and other circum- 
stances of his death, were committed with entire 
confidence, to the wisdom and goodness of his hea- 
venly Father. "On comparing the present state 



18 h MEMOIR OF 15 AGON. 

of my health with that which I have possessed 
for several years past/' he writes in the spring of 
1819, " I find it has undergone a great change for 
the worse* I am now labouring under a severe 
cough, which, should it increase, I think must 
soon carry me off, I am willing to die ; but it 
is my duty to be willing likewise to live, as long 
as I can do good." — On another occasion : 
"The death of ***** * which I witnessed, 
has had a happy effect in tranquillising my 
mind, and engaging it in the contemplation of 
my own dissolution. I would look beyond the 
grave for the consummation of my hopes." — 
"Only let me be found ' doing my Lord's will/ 
and what is the difference, whether a fit of the 
apoplexy or a lingering consumption, be commis- 
sioned to take me home?" " Holy Father," he 
prays on another occasion of reflection on the 
precarious state of his health, " prepare me for 
death. When I rise in the morning, let me go 
about the duties of the day as if to prepare to 
die at night. Thus shall ' I be found watch- 
ing/ — My health evidently Oiils; and I often 
wish to die : but perhaps I am wrong." 



MEMOIR OF BACON. 185 



CHAP. VII. 



i 



It is proper to exhibit, a little more at large^ 
(he exalted object to which the strongest aspira- 
tions of Mr. Bacon's soul were directed. His 
was a mark no less elevated than the perfection 
of that holiness, of which he had been already 
made, in a certain degree, the partaker. He had 
been entirely captivated with the discovery of 
his Saviour's image, which had been made to the 
eye of his faith ; and his spirit never found entire 
repose until it was changed from one degree of 
resemblance to a still higher, — and eventually so 
sanctified throughout, as to reflect from every 
part, his unclouded glory. What were his ex* 
pectations as to the degree of holiness attainable 
in the present life, does not clearly appear. But 
he knew that believers were permitted and re- 
quired to aim at perfect purity : nothing less could 
bound his expansive desires, or satiate the per- 
petual thirst of his soul : and whether the point 
was to be attained in life, or at death, or beyond, 
was not so much an object of his inquiry, as, by 
what means he should reach it. "Jesus," he 
states in his journal, " is sweet and precious to 
my soul. I feel determined, through grace, to go 
on in a life of godliness, taking Jesus for my all. 
I will, with joy, sacrifice every thing that will 

not help me on to Jesus. Placing him before me, 

24 



186 MEMOIR OF BACON. 

and pressing on to the mark of his perfection, 
1 will dismiss every impeding care, — will May 
aside every weight and the sin which most 
easily besets me/ and still go onward to Jesus. 
God Almighty help me, Jesus help me, Holy 
Spirit help me, to keep this resolution." " Ho- 
liness of heart and life," he repeats, " is what I 
want, and must have : God for Christ's sake, will 
I believe, bestow it, if I strive with persevering 
earnestness for it." Subsequently : " Our meet- 
ing was thinly attended this evening, — but it 
was a refreshing season. I desire to live nearer, 
and still nearer to God. I want more faith, more 
love to God, more of the entire spirit of my blessed 
Saviour. Oh for more spiritual energy, — to be 
1 strengthened with all might in the inner man ! ? " 
Still later : " Dr. # * ***preached, to-day, on 
'Holiness of heart. ' The discourse came home to 
my conscience, forcibly. My mind is greatly ex- 
ercised for ' holiness of heart/ It is the sub- 
ject of my constant prayer. Oh that God would 
hear me ! — ' I will sprinkle clean water upon you. 
and you shall be clean ; from all your filthiness 
and your idols will I cleanse you/ is a promise 
that habitually dwells in my thoughts. Give me. 
Lord, a clean heart, and cleanse me from all my 
idols. Oh affix the seal of Heaven to my soul ! 
I cannot be satisfied without thee — thee, for my 
only portion." In reviewing his progress for a 
few days, he states on another occasion, " I am 
very unfaithful, yet my only prevailing desire 



MEMOIR OF BACON. 187 

is, holiness of heart. Oh I need it ; I desire it ; 
I pray for it ; 1 must have it ! While I live, I 
will live for it. Nothing will ever satisfy me 
but perfect holiness." 

Blessed Spirit ! Thy prayer is heard ; too 
soon for us, thy largest desires are fulfilled, in 
the kingdom of God ! Drinking at the Fountain 
head of holiness, thou canst thirst no more ! 

But the Saviour's benediction and promise, 
' blessed are they that hunger and thirst after 
righteousness, for they shall be filled/ have their 
partial accomplishment, in the present world. 
To very few could the qualification on which 
this promise depends, be appropriated with more 
manifest propriety, than to Mr. Bacon. The 
command of the Saviour, ' ask that your joy may 
be full/ was, likewise, through grace, in a good 
degree obeyed by him. He was incessant in 
his petitions for this very blessing. Why is it, 
that the doctrine of the divine influence on the 
minds of the saints, has fallen, in this age, if not 
into partial discredit, yet into so low and re- 
stricted a practical use, among those who are 
most interested in it ? The orthodox cannot, 
indeed, disbelieve the promises which relate to 
so great a blessing ;■ — the doctrine is retained in 
all our formularies of faith ; but wiiy is it not 
more valued ? Why are the blessings which it 
implies, so remissly sought, — and so little ex- 
pected ? Next to the truth, that our redemption 
has been effected by the blood of the Son of 



188 MEMOIR OF BACON. 

God, none more deeply concerns our blind and 
corrupted race, than that of the purchase and 
mission of the Holy Spirit to purify our hearts, 
bring down a foretaste of Heaven into our souls, 
and enlighten our understandings to comprehend 
the divine mysteries of the gospel. No promises 
are more intelligible and express, than those 
which relate to this inestimable privilege of be- 
lievers. The doctrine has indeed, been fearfully 
corrupted, and abused. The enemies of the gos- 
pel could no* nave taken a measure of more fa- 
tal efficacy, for dimming its lustre, and curtail- 
ing its influence. This very consideration, in- 
stead of sinking its estimation in the minds of 
christians, and enfeebling the efforts of their 
faith in securing its benefits, should the more 
endear it to their hearts, and engage them in 
asserting its full influence in the economy of 
grace. Had every professing christian afford- 
ed in his own example, the same practical 
illustration of the nature and extent of the ope- 
rations of the Spirit on the heart, as the subject 
of this memoir, not only would its opposors 
be silenced, but so illustrious a feature of our 
holy religion would impart to the whole sys- 
tem, in the view of the world, a glory which 
it has never exhibited since the age of the apos- 
tles. The narrative of this part of his christian 
experience forms a necessary supplement to the 
foregoing; without which the whole would be 
less scriptural, and manifestly imperfect. <Wi«- 



MEMOIR OF BACON. 189 

dom's ways are' evinced by it to be c ways of 
pleasantness, and all her paths' to be those 
of ' peace/ It displays in an attractive light, a 
specimen of those pure joys of the soul, pecu- 
liar to them who love God; with which <no 
stranger intermeddles ; 7 and which, the rapt apos- 
tle declares, i eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, 
nor has it entered into the be-aft' not illuminated 
by the divine Spirit, to conceive.^ 

At the close of a well spent evening, he was 
able to write, " Thanks to the Lord, I have 
again been owned as his child, and Messed with 
his love. I repaired to the place of our weekly 
exercise of prayer, in a praying spirit ; and no 
sooner entered, than I felt the return of the 
* sweet Messenger of rest.' The holy Spirit 
evidently resumed his place in my mind. It was 
my duty to lead the devotions of the occasion. 
Every word came with an unction of love and 
affection. Grace ruled, and almost inspired the 
language and expression. I could sing with 
ineffable sweetness and ease. O holy, lovely, 
adorable Saviour, ' thou knowest all things, thou 
knowest that I love thee !? I had the opportunity 
to speak a few words for him who was so near 
and so unspeakably good, to me, I trust, to inter- 

* A slight attention to the apostle's argument in con- 
nexion with these words, will discover them to relate prin- 
cipally, if not wholly, to the spiritual communications made 
to the Saints, in the present world. 1. Tor. ii. 8, 9, 10. 



190 MEMOIR OF BACOIs. 

ested hearers, and in faith that it will not be un- 
productive." 

In another entry in his journal, he " desires 
to thank God that he has warmed his heart with 
Ills love, and that he has not to complain of spi- 
ritual lethargy to the same degree as formerly. 
He lived during the whole of the day in a region 
of etherial sunshine — so calm, so placid, so 
deeply peaceful to the mind," as to draw forth 
the exclamation, ' Oh this religion of Christ, 'tis 
a glorious work ! What joys to he compared to 
those of his love !" — " How true is it," he re- 
marks in the fruition of these same gracious 
communications, " how true is it, that the teach- 
ings of the Holy Spirit Mead us into all truth !' 
I have this evening had a view of things which 
eonld only he revealed by the Spirit. With 
what a power of vigilance and discernment 
does the Spirit dwelling within the followers 
of Christ, arm the soul! How quick is it to dis- 
cover the workings of sin, both in ourselves, and 
in our brethren ! O beloved Saviour, O blessed 
God, I desire all thy communicable fulness !" 

In the Autumn of 1818, he states, " The 
reading of Davies ? s sermon on the resurrection, 
caused me to tremble, and cry for mercy to be 
shown me on that day. But praised be the 
name of the Lord, on close examination, I find 
myself in a state of reconciliation to God, — and 
am overwhelmed with a sense of his goodness 
in receiving such a wretch. 'Oh how great 



MEMOIR OF BACON, 191 

is his goodness !' " — A few weeks later he 
writes; " [n conversation and prayer with a 
christian brother, I enjoyed a great freedom of 
access, and nearness of communion with my 
God. He bears with my infirmities, and ' heals 
my backslidings,' for his Son's sake. For some 
time past, I have been kept under the shadow of 
the Almighty, and in Christ Jesus, my soul ex- 
claims, ' no condemnation — no condemnation V ' ; 
In January following, he had occasion to note 
in his journal, "I this day was drawn still 
nearer to the source of holiness and love. Never 
have I realised in so short a time, so much of 
salvation. At an interview with a very few of 
my dear brethren this evening, I spent an hour 
of glory- — and enjoyed a feast of marrow and 
fatness. For several days past, my joys have 
occasionally, been all unutterable/* — In Febru- 
ary, he thus describes the happy state of his 
feelings : "I spent the evening in social prayer 
and praise, and the glory of the Lord rested 
upon me; his holy Spirit filled me. The words 
* I have made you, and I will bear, even I will 
carry you, and I will deliver you/ were delight- 
fully applied to me. Joy, abundant joy, was the 
sensation which prevailed in my mind above all 
others. My ' peace was as a river, and my 
righteousness as an overflowing stream/ I can- 
not doubt, I do not doubt, but God has begun to 
purify my soul. I love holiness: and God grant 



lt)& MEMOIR OF li ACOiN. 

I may ever make holiness my only hope in Christ 
Jesus." 

In the last of March, 18 19, "Mr. Bacon re- 
views his religious experience from that date up 
to the 5th of the same month, and with his cus- 
tomary sincerity states, that " for the greatest 
part of the time, I have been kept in a happy 
state of mind, have had very few trials of my 
religion, and been wonderfully the subject of 
divine grace." 

Mr. Bacon's very theory in religion, may be 
properly termed, practical. He could conceive 
of nothing that deserved the name which did not 
comprehend love to God, faith in the Saviour, 
and charity to men, — each manifesting itself in 
its appropriate fruits. Hence, the barriers which 
some others choose to throw around themselves, 
and the members of their own particular religious 
sect, and which are sustained chiefly by certain 
verbal definitions of subordinate points of faith, 
were to him unknown ; and unless interposed 
by the bigotry of others, in a manner that oblig- 
ed them to be felt, were wholly disregarded. 
Between those who know the truth as it is in 
Jesus Christ, by the revelation of the Spirit, — 
whose names ate written in Heaven, — and who 
have entered into an everlasting covenant with 
God and his people ; and the servants of sin and 
heirs of death eternal, he saw an infinite differ- 
ence. On this, he ever insisted. Professing 
christians of a] I names, were subjected to the test 



MEMOIR OF BACON. 19.3 

of a comparison of their characters and lives, 
with the plainest marks of discrimination alleged 
in the scriptures between these different classes. 
A unity of faith in true believers, he knew there 
lpust be : and he was often, happily able to de- 
tect this essential unity, by a comparison of the 
temper and character ; where others, insisting 
on an identity of phraseology in the definitions 
of their faith, would discover nothing but dis- 
cord ; and exclude from their fellowship those 
whom Christ had received. But, with this safe 
and scriptural Catholicism, few have exercised 
more discrimination in a practical application of 
the true principles of estimating the claims of 
professors, to the character of real christians. 
There were in his view, not only many doctrines 
to which such must assent ; but a deep, lasting 
and visible change, to be wrought by them, in 
their hearts and lives. Those, and those only, 
could he embrace as his brethren in Christ, 
whose orthodoxy was a living and operative 
principle of faith, productive of good works. 
On all these, whatever names they bore among 
men, he saw inscribed by the finger of God, in 
the most legible characters, the new name by 
which their birth-right is ascertained on earth, 
and their inheritance will be awarded in Heaveu. 
On a certain occasion, he writes, " I have lately 
had my spirit grieved by hearing certain indivi- 
duals venting their slanderous and pitiful spleen 
against mv Methodist brethren* Alas ! What 



194 MEMOIR OF BACON. 

a want of grace do they shew ! I thank God, he 
has made me love all his children, whatever 
name they may bear." On another occasion, 
writing to a christian ft iend, he says, u I feel 
bound to praise God that he has not permitted 
me to become a bigot to a sect of the christian 
church. It is the Bible and its author; it is 
Christ, and him crucified ; it is salvation by 
faith ; these are the grand and wonderful themes 
that are to exercise our minds and animate our 
souls, and move us to action. I am of Paul,; and I 
of Apollos ; and I of Cephas ! division and 
party ! — This is the great error of christians. 
Let us have done with it. We must all be of 
Christ, and blessed be our God that we are get- 
ting to see eye to eye." 

Of the strength of his habitual affection for 
his christian brethren, the following passages 
from his journal will furnish a remarkable'proof : 
when it is considered that the individual to 
whom they relate belonged to a communion be- 
tween which and his own, the visible difference 
was very strongly marked. "I spent the even- 
ing with brother * * * * *. I love him as a dear 
brother. His voice, ever since I first heard it in 
prayer, has been music in my ear." Soon after- 
wards : " Brother ***** is now with me. 
His society has always proved beneficial to me. 
I am strengthened by his counsel, and stirred up 
by his example. I trust our mutual prayers may 
draw down upon us a mutual blessing. lam 



MEMOIR OF BACOTSf. 195 

singularly attached to him. I cannot say, that 
I love any earthly object more than him, except 
my son,-— and I am not sure even of that. He 
appears to be the most faithful christian that I 
ever met with. An unction from the holy One 
rests abundantly upon him. I shall soon part 
with him. God grant we may meet above^ 
where parting scenes are ' felt and feared no 
more.' " 

In the following incident which Mr. Bacon 
casually records in his journal, for November^ 
1818, more than one trait of his greatly altered 
character will be illustrated ; and at the same 
time a species of injurious treatment, of the most 
cruel description, be exposed, which can afford 
no gratification except to minds that are near- 
ly lost to the feelings of common humanity. 
To take advantage of the known principles of an 
humble christian, who is deterred by the fear of 
his God, and prevented by his love to men, not 
only from inflietiflg an injury, but even from 
wishing to retaliate it upon his persecutor, to 
wrong and wound him, certainly evinces a conu 
pound of moral depravity, and unmanly self-de- 
basement, which, it is to be hoped, does not of- 
ten meet in the same human breast. 

"In the business of the day I experienced sev- 
eral trials of patience : — one was of a severe de- 
scription. In a cause in which Mr. #* # # # was 
opposed to me, I had occasion to cite * Peake's 
Evidence/ in reference to unliquidated dam- 



196 MEMOIR OF BACON. 

ages, I contended that they could not be au 
offset in a case similar to the one in hand. I 
said, (and it was the very point on which the 
merits of the case turned) 'This is law. —It is 
the law of Pennsylvania/ — Mr * * * * * saw 
the bearing of the cited passage, and several 
times rudely interrupted my remarks by declaring, 
'That is only English law/ I said 'gentlemen, 
this is the law of Pennsylvania : — this book is 
law in Pennsylvania: and it is rather unfair in 
you, Mr. * * * * * to misrepresent it/ I pro- 
ceeded, amidst his still more frequent interrup- 
tions ; — but in justice to my client, was obliged 
to insist that the cited authority was law. Eight 
or ten times in succession, he declared I was ' a 
fool/ I paid no regard to his opprobrious lan- 
guage; and he became gradually warmed to a 
high state of exasperation, and said, my asser- 
tions were ' false/ I at length replied that 
* Mr. * * * * * had lately been to Philadelphia 
to take new lessons in politeness, and that he 
was a gentleman.' I also told the referees, that 
it was ' impudence in the plaintiff's counsel to 
deny that the passage in question was law/ — I 
am not conscious of having felt the least emotion 
of anger : but on reflection, I regret the sarcas- 
tic nature of my reply, and my attempt to wound 
his feelings by ridicule. But he most unfairly 
and untruly misrepresented the law, and called 
me ; fool' and ' liar' for maintaining it. — The 
time was, when I should haye instantly seized 



MEMOIR OF BACON, li|7 

a deadly weapon on such an occasion; and suf- 
fered nothing but blood to atone for the indigni- 
ty : — I acknowledge it with remorse and shame. 
But, thank God, i have no disposition now, to 
injure any man. Several gentlemen of the bar, 
have taken advantage of my religion, more than 
once, when I fully believed, and do still believe, 
that I was stating the truth, to call me a ' liar. 5 
They all know that if 1 were a sinner like 
themselves, or if I were as once I was, they 
Avould as soon have eaten coals of fire, as accus- 
ed me to my face of ' lying/ Eut they know 
also, that my nature is now changed, and that 
iny religion, and my dispositions forbid my re- 
taliating evil for evil : I thank God he holds the 
reins of my passions in his own hand, and all 
this abuse is not suffered to make me angry. 
I receive these things as a part of that persecu- 
tion with which I have laid my account as the 
portion of 'all who will live godly in Christ 
Jesus.' " 

About three months after the date of this 
occurrence, Mr. Bacon attended the individual 
to whom it principally refers, in his dying mo- 
ments. He had visited him almost daily, ad- 
ministering the most affectionate and salutary 
counsel during the last stages of his illness ; 
and, in putting down a few reflections excited by 
his death, observes, " We have often differed 
about our professional business ; and perhaps 
he sometimes used me ill. But as it usually 



198 MEMOIR OF BACON* 

happens, both parties were in fault. In refer- 
ence to our last dispute," (that just related) " I 
regret that I said any thing in retaliation of the 
injury he did me. I heartily forgive all my ene- 
mies ; and pray God to forgive me for not living 
with Mr. * # * * * and all others, so as to re- 
commend religion as much in my conduct, as by 
my lips." 

It would be difficult to assign a cause more 
directly or vitally affecting the interests of reli- 
gion, than the character of its ministers. Their 
designation to the sacred office has hence, in 
every orthodox and truly evangelical branch of 
the christian church, been submitted to the espe- 
cial providence of Him with whose message they 
are charged. No miraculous interposition, ei- 
ther in the designation, or the ministrations of 
the christian priesthood, is now to be expected 
by the church. But its divine Head observes 
an uniform method, both in delegating, and aid- 
ing in their work, the ministers of the gospel ; 
in which the supernatural influences of his holy 
Spirit have a direct and most important concern. 
In the appointment of ministers, the church in- 
deed, has an agency : — and commonly a large 
share of the guilt incurred in the ordination of 
improper persons, rests with her. Her duty is 
not so properly to select, as to ascertain by the 
rules of scripture, whom Christ has selected for 
this work ; and confer a formal authority on 
those whom He had previously prepared by his 



i 



MEMOIR OF BACON. 199 

providence and his grace, and * moved by his 
Spirit/ to receive it. 

It by no means follows, that the authority 
conferred by ordination is not essential to the 
ministerial character: judging from scripture 
precedents, we are certainly led to the conclu- 
sion that the right of ministering in the word 
and sacraments, can in no case have place with- 
out the concurrence of ecclesiastical ordination, 
with those qualifications which are prior in their 
order, and of paramount importance. 

These are of two classes. The first are 
such as all the living members of Christ, whether 
called to act in a public, or private capacity, 
possess in common ; and they are essential to the 
christian character. It was Mr. Bacon's happy 
distinction not only to exhibit to others the most 
lucid proofs of his regeneration and acceptance 
as a child of God, but to possess in his own 
breast, the 'witness of the Spirit/ to his adoption, 
and a steadfast hope of salvation. Some share 
of this confidence is essential to the regenerate 
character : a still larger share appears ordina- 
rily necessary to the ministers of Christ ; and 
few have enjoyed this humble assurance in a 
higher degree than Mr. Bacon, while preparing 
for the ministry. His devotion to the service 
of his Redeemer was unequivocal ; his delight 
in it, supreme ; his zeal was ardent, and his ex- 
perimental knowledge of the efficacy of evan- 
gelical truth, and the power of divine grace, 



200 MEMOIR OF BACON. 

was thorough and various. Considered as a 
christian, few will hesitate to pronounce him emi- 
nent. With the other qualifications, which with- 
out being pcenliar to those who are called into 
the public service of the sanctuary, are still es- 
sential to that vocation, he has been seen to have 
been amply endowed. In a talent for commu- 
nicating instruction, for conciliating the affec- 
tions of men of various and opposite characters 
and prejudices, and for avoiding offences, he par- 
ticularly excelled ; and in the christian virtues 
of humility, self-deinal, forbearance, and dis- 
interestedness, he was a shining example to the 
church and the world. 

To the extent of these qualifications, Mr. 
Bacon was especially fitted for the holy work 
of the ministry. But these alone, it must be 
confessed, could never authorise him to leave a 
profession in which divine providence had situ- 
ated him, and made him eminently useful. 
Many christians in similar circumstances, are 
misled by their own zeal, the advice of their 
brethren, and a partial survey of the question 
of duty, to turn aside from the open path in 
which divine providence has fitted them, with 
most comfort to themselves, and advantage to the 
cause of Christ, to pursue their way to Heaven. 
An indefinite increase of faithful evangelists 
and pastors is certainly needed: and woe to 
them who are called to the work, if they do not 
preach the gospel ! But those who are appa- 



MEMOIR OF BACON. 201 

reutly directed in the overruling providence of 
God, to a different pursuit, and are manifestly 
useful iu their sphere, should most cautiously 
verify their call to the exercise of the sacred 
function, before they venture to adopt it. By 
such persons the consideration may be profita- 
bly remembered and applied, that a labourer 
merely unskilful, may do the cause Of religion a 
positive disservice both by abandoning his 
proper station of usefulness in life, and by 
occupying the place of a more accomplished 
workman. It would be but a most unacceptable 
expression of zeal or love for the Redeemer, to 
presume that his interest in the world, requires 
the ministry of those whom he has not chosen ; 
or that he has indeed chosen those who are not 
well appointed to the holy calling. But the 
work of the christian ministry is various, and 
will always require the employment of a great 
variety of gifts and qualifications : and recourse 
must, at last, be had both by individuals, and 
the ordaining authorities of the church, to the 
evidence of a special call, in order to decide 
the question of duty. Those who are obliged 
to inquire into the true nature of this call, and 
to act in obedience to it, have great need of the 
especial illumination and guidance of the Holy 
Spirit. For the direction of such, a more parti- 
cular detail of Mr. Bacon's principal trials and 
encouragements, and of the methods by which 

<2fi 



202 MEMOIR OF BACON. 

divine Providence finally introduced him into 
the ministry, may reflect some useful light. 

He appears to have had impressions on this 
subject, even prior to the full establishment of 
his hopes in relation to his own salvation : which 
however, had very little or no weight in the ul- 
timate decision of the question. This was very 
properly taken on far different grounds. Desi- 
rous, above all things, to promote the glory of 
God, and the salvation of men, he was naturally 
induced to inquire into the most effectual means 
of realising these ends. The ministry occur- 
red as offering more fully to combine his talents 
and exertions in the accomplishment of his de- 
vout wishes, than any other profession. Hence, 
the sacred office came to assume in his estima 
tion, a dignity, and the ministerial work a desi- 
rableness, which raised in his mind for both, a 
strong and decided predilection over every other 
pursuit. The possibility that God might design 
for him so great an honour and happiness, at an 
early period of his religious course, and ever 
afterwards, prevented him from entering into any 
permanent engagements which might, in the 
least, counteract the gracious purpose. On per- 
ceiving that the indications of Providence ap 
peared to favour this habitual bent of his de- 
sires; that the advice of his most judicious 
christian friends, concurred ; that his most active 
and public labours for the promotion of the 
cause of Christ, were both acceptable to his pious 









MEMOIR OF BACON. 303 

friends, and useful to the souls of all classes : 
that these labours were attended with great per^ 
sonal comfort, and the evident approbation and 
blessing of God j and when he reflected also ; 
that he had constantly committed himself to the 
direction of God, in fervent prayer ; it was im- 
possible for him not to entertain, in addition to 
his strong desires, for entering the ministry, an 
animating hope of their eventual gratification. 
A lively sense of the numerous imperfections, 
and deficiencies which his own eye, much better 
than those of his fellow -men, could discover in 
his christian character, for the responsible and 
difficult work, would often damp the rising hope, 
and produce a momentary fluctuation of his pur- 
pose. But he remarked, when the frame of hie 
mind was most spiritual, and his affections purest, 
and best directed, that his doubts were propor- 
tionably few, and his inclination towards the 
work, strongest. To a judicious and intimate 
christian friend, he thus unbosomed himself, in 
the early part of the year 1819 : " Since I have 
experienced a change of heart, and the purposes 
of my soul have been turned in a new, and I 
would humbly hope, in a heavenly direction, the 
current of my desires has been flowing towards 
the ministry. Consequently, every thing which 
could be brought to bear on this object, has been 
made to do it. But what could be accomplished 
in the short space of two and a half years, in 
the midst of a busy profession ? and that with 



304 MEMOIR OF BACON. 

a constitution crumbling to pieces under the pres- 
sure of sedentary habits ? But with regard to 
ray unfitness, and un worthiness for this awful 
charge, what shall I say ? I feel overwhelm 
ed with its awful responsibilities. I cannot par- 
ticularise, — I am all unfit. Human learning, 
whatever mine may be, is not a grain in the ba- 
lance. I feel no worthiness or fitness ; but, as I 
said before, the current of my desires has been 
setting towards the ministry. The Shepherd 
and Bishop of Souls has never suffered me to be 
at rest on that subject. I have been ' pressed m 
spirit' to preach the gospel, and that continually* 
1 have sometimes, for a short time, induced the 
belief, that it could not be my duty, circum- 
stanced as I have found myself. But I am 
now afraid to resist what I must think is the 
will of my Heavenly Father. I am willing to 
be ' as clay in the hands of the potter. 5 ' Thy 
will be done/ is the language of my most fer- 
vent aspirations to God. I cannot say less 
than that I am willing to do any thing for the 
cause of my Redeemer, that it is his will I 
should do. I consider myself as wholly his. 
Wherever, and whenever, I can find it to be 
his will that I should labour, then and there, I 
say ' Speak, Lord, thy servant waits to hear.' " 
The direct influence of the Spirit of God 
on his mind, the effects of which Mr. Bacon 
characterises by being "pressed in spirit to 
preach the gospel,"' is distinctly recognised by 



MEMOIR OF BACOW £05 

the Episcopal church in the ordination service; 
as a qualification universally necessary for the 
sacred office. It may be described more particu- 
larly, as a strong conviction of the duty of en- 
tering the ministry, founded on rational and 
scriptural evidence of possessing the requisite 
qualifications for the work, attended with an 
ardent and prevailing love of it, and enforced 
by the direct agency of the divine Spirit on the 
mind. The line of duty was so distinctly drawn 
in his mind by these concurring testimonies, that 
he employed in his diary, the following deci- 
sive language in relation to it, in March of 1819 : 
u I am now satisfied of my call to the office of 
the ministry. But past experience has convinced 
me, that in giving up my mind to my secular 
business sufficiently to enable me to do it justice, 
the state of my feelings may alter, and I shall 
begin to doubt my call. I now enter it on re- 
cord, that however I may hereafter doubt, 1 still 
have been clearly taught my duty, and must re- 
cur to this date and page to set me right." 

But however satisfactory to his judgment 
and conscience, this body of evidence may have 
proved, Mr. Bacon never contemplated the work 
without trembling. The greatness of its res- 
ponsibilities, and the consequences as they must 
affect his own eternal state, of a faithful or ne- 
gligent performance of its duties, presented 
themselves to his enlightened mind, with awful 
interest. This feeling was enhanced by a sur- 



S06 MEMOIR OF iJACON. 

rev of the effects which his ministry must pro- 
duce on the present, and everlasting happiness 
of a multitude of his fellow immortals ; and on 
the interests of Christ, and the manifestation of 
the divine glory, in the church and the world ! 
Had his faith been less vigorous, and his love 
and fear of God less operative, his sensations in 
the anticipation of this work, would have been 
proportionately less overwhelming. An unstu- 
died expression of these feelings on the approach 
of his ordination, is furnished in the following 
extracts from his diary : 

" August 10th. Every thing seems to pro- 
mise well in respect to my ordination. But 
the good Lord help me ! As I draw nearer the 
solemn occasion, 1 feel more sensibly the awful 
nature of the vocation. Oh for more of the 
grace of God ; more light ; more strength from 
Heaven ; more of Christ!" 

¥ August 20th. This vile and wicked heart ! 
I almost shudder to undertake with it, the duties 
of the ministry. Help me ; humble me, O my 
God : and make me as a little child !" 

" September 6th. Having previously sus- 
tained the requisite examinations, I was yester- 
day, ordained deacon, by the Right Rev. Bishop 
White. It was a severe trial ; but the Lord sus- 
tained me in a remarkable manner. His pre- 
sence comforted me. I preached twice on the 
same day, and the Lord gave me grace to do it 
ranch better than my fears had apprehended." 






MEMOIR OF B AC Ols. 207 



CHAP. VIII. 

The day succeeding his ordination, had been 
previously fixed by Mr. Bacon, for commencing 
his mission in furtherance of the views of the 
Philadelphia Bible society. The experience 
which he had acquired by his successful exer- 
tions in behalf of Sabbath schools, in a part of 
the same region, had eminently qualified him for 
this service. The objects of the mission are 
stated in the instructions of the committee by 
whose immediate appointment Mr. Bacon had 
been engaged in it, to be, " To form and bring 
into existence, or lay the foundation of bringing 
into existence, hereafter, Bible societies or asso- 
ciations in any part of the state, where it shall be 
proper to make the attempt." The committee 
u pledged the most zealous and active co-opera- 
tion and support of the Bible society of Phila- 
delphia, to all associations that might form for 
the sole purpose of distributing the sacred scrip- 
tures." The route, and particular means of 
executing the purposes of the society, which it 
would be proper for their agent to adopt, were 
very properly submitted by the committee, to his 
own judgment, and to the direction of future cir- 
cumstances. 

The cause of disseminating the sacred wri- 
tings both in christian and foreign countries. 



208 MEMOIR OF BACON, 

needs not to justify or recommend it, the suffrage 
of an individual's opinion ; and perhaps can 
gain little at the present day, from the example 
of any particular instance of zeal and disinteres- 
tedness, however sincere and fervent. But it is 
from Mr. Bacon's journal and correspondence, 
during the performance of this tour, that the 
most satisfactory and numerous testimonies of 
his clerical talents, and fidelity can be derived; 
and the progressive maturity of his christian 
character in an interesting part of the last year 
of his life, be best traced. 

Before leaving Philadelphia he had arrang- 
ed with his pious friends a plan of correspon- 
dence ; and secured for himself and his mission, 
a special rememberance in their daily prayers. 
Among these friends, were to be found the mem* 
bers of several different religious societies, whose 
peculiarities, were lost in the deep interest which 
they had been taught to feel in the advancement of 
the gospel, and the salvation of their fellow-men. 
The very respectable member of the committee, 
with whose elevated and enlightened piety, the 
tone of his own, could accord in the happiest uni- 
son ; and who as well from that circumstance, as 
the station he held in the board, engrossed a prin- 
cipal share of his correspondence while employ- 
ed on this mission* was attached to a christian 
communion different from his own. But in a 
communication and interchange of pious feel- 
ings the most unreserved, by these two distin- 



MEMOllt OF BACON. 209 

guished proficients in the school of Christ, not a 
discordant sentiment seems to have been ad* 
vanced, nor a jarring emotion to have interrupt 
ed the sweet and holy communion of their 
spirits. The entire correspondence would be 
highly appreciated by every truly piou9 rea- 
der ; but its admission is necessarily precluded 
by the plan of this memoir. A few of the most 
interesting passages in Mr. Bacon's letters, 
only, can with a due regard to the unity of the 
narrative, be here introduced. 

Mr. Bacon had already received several 
communications from Washington, explanatory 
of the designs both of the Government, and of the 
Colonization society, in reference to the forma- 
tion of a settlement for the reception of li- 
berated Africans and free blacks of the United 
States, on the Coast of Africa. The offer of a 
situation in the projected expedition had been 
informally made him ; and he was now waiting 
for the events of Providence to explain to him 
more fully in what way it would be proper for 
him to treat that application. f*rom the first, 
he had evinced a willingness to engage in the 
service, if no future obstacle should be inter- 
posed ; and both entered upon, and executed 
his present mission, with that to Africa in im- 
mediate prospect; although his appointment 
was neither made, nor accepted, in form, until 

more than a month after his return^ 

87 



SiO MEMOIR OF BACON. 

In a letter written from York four days after 
the commencement of this mission, and only 
five days after his ordination, to a christian 
friend in Philadelphia, after naming several of 
his pious brethren in that city, he subjoins, " Do 
let all these my beloved friends, know that I 
can never reward them for their prayers, before, 
at, and after my ordination. I can only pray 
God to bless them, as he has in consequence of 
their supplications, blessed me."* 

Under the same date Mr. Bacon wrote to 
another christian friend : " Your approbation 
of my first sermon encourages me. I make a 
point to give a practical application to every 
doctrine. I think myself right; but many judge 
differently.'" **** "I started from Philadelphia 
quite asleep : and was not half awake at West- 
Chester : — but I am now beginning a little to open 
my eyes on the magnitude of my object !** ■* * -^* 
" At Columbia, the Lord gave me uncommon help. 
1 All the euds of the world shall see the salvation 
of our (rod/ was the text. I had no time for 
preparation : — but as I was walking over the ten 
miles between Lancaster and Columbia, I occa- 
sionally took out my pocket Testament to see 
what the Lord would show me. At length, my 
eye was directed to the 6th verse of the iii. 
chap, of Luke. I saw it was quoted from Isai- 
ah ; and on my arrival in the village, took a 
Bible, and turned to it. The Lord opened my 
mind's eye, and helped me abundantly."— -Mr 



MEMOIR OF BACON. 241 

Bacon's pulpit preparations were generally of 
a very similar description. Among his volumi- 
nous manuscripts was not found, it is believed, 
an entire discourse for the pulpit. Engaged, as 
he constantly was, in the laborious prosecution 
of other collateral labours, he neither had suf- 
ficient time, nor did the nature of his pursuits 
require him, to observe the same exactness in 
the style and method of his addresses, which 
the periodical demands of a parochial charge 
would have rendered necessary. His talents 
too, were of that peculiar character which, while 
they less fitted him for proficiency in the seclusion 
of the closet, enabled him better to dispense 
with that advantage, than most of his clerical 
brethren. Add to this, the maturity of his mind, 
its various furniture, and a habit of public speak- 
ing, acquired by several years* practice at the 
bar, — and few but must approve of the method he 
observed in his pulpit performances, without de- 
ducing from his example a single argument in 
recommendation of a similar practice to his ju- 
niors ; who can justly pretend neither to his pe- 
culiar qualifications, nor his apology, for the ex- 
temporaneous performance of their pulpit duties. 
Mr. Bacon carried with him, wherever he was 
called to officiate, an example — a character — a 
weight of influence, which, itself, partially ac- 
complished the work of every discourse, before 
he opened his lips : — an advantage which a 



212 MEMOIR OF BACON. 

younger man of the best promise can scarcely be 
expected, in any instance, to possess. 

Although the accomplishment of the specific 
objects of his mission engrossed its full share 
of Mr. Bacon's sincere and zealous endeavours^ 
he never lost sight of the great and paramount 
ends of the gospel miuistry. In the letter from 
which the last quotation is extracted, he adds : 
"What can be done for your society, with 
God's ever-needed help, shall be done. But 
my soul is in pain for Zion. For her, her Bible, 
and her children, my waking and my sleeping 
hours are filled with ceaseless solicitude, I do 
pray that the Lord may give me souls, as well 
as Bible societies, for my hire." 

Having been for a very few days engaged in 
his work, he adopted the plan of sending his 
appointments forward, one, two, and even three 
weeks before him, into the different counties and 
villages which he intended to visit: together 
with a general annunciation of his object, and 
an invitation to the people, to assemble at the 
period specified, in readiness to act in the man- 
ner which a due consideration of the important 
object, and their particular circumstances should 
render most advisable. By observing this course, 
and writing beforehand to most of the influ- 
ential individuals, clergy and people, in the se- 
veral counties, he was enabled to combine in fur- 
therance of the objects of his mission, a large 
portion of the moral strength of the different 



■ 



MEMOIR OF BACON, 213 

communities through which he passed. Sep- 
tember 15th, he thus writes uuder the York date. 
u My course is shaped by circumstances, which 
in my opinion, fully approve it, but which I 
really am at this moment too much agitated to 
detail. Oh, sir, I am tearing asunder the ten- 
derest ties in this place, leaving my friends ap- 
parently for ever, as to the present world. There 
are dear christian souls here, — some amongst 
others, that claim me as their spiritual father. 
I cannot trust myself on this subject, — and 
must quit it. ?? * * * * " I preached here twice 
on Sunday. — At evening, we had the house, yard 
and street, filled. My voice reached them all." — 
a I am bound to tell you, my dear sir, that al- 
though the prospect of parting with my be- 
loved friends is a sore and heavy trial, yet ever 
since I was ordained, I have had the unceasing 
presence of God. My soul has been all prayer 
and praise. God gives me grace to bear all. 
He is my all — my only, and my all-sufficient 
hope, — my strength and my salvation. The 
spirit is willing ; but the flesh is weak." 

In prosecuting his tour from York, he visited 
Gettysburg, and other places in Adams county ; 
but complains of the most disheartening indiffer- 
ence and disinclination to move in furtherance* of 
the Bible cause, iu some of his clerical brethren, 
there. He considered their excuses as quite in- 
sufficient ; and was for a short season, severely 
tried by the coldness of his reception. From 



£14 MEMOIR OF BACON. 

Chambersburg lie next writes, under date of the 
18th : " I have surmounted the conflict which 
the part my friends chose to take, produced in 
my feelings, and have given them over to God in 
prayer ; and feel now quite at ease." * * * " In 
this county. (Franklin) my labours have been 
pleasant and successful. The Bible cause 
prospers. It is in good hands — which are ac- 
tuated by zealous hearts. What a contrast be- 
tween this and Adams ! There, I could do no* 
thing, because nothing had been done before. 
Here I can do nothing, because every thing 
has been done already/' * * "I begin to find 
that, to travel all day, and preach every night, 
is by no means, an easy task." 

The cause of christian benevolence in all 
its various branches, is so perfectly identical and 
unique, as to turn all temperate competition to 
the strengthening of the common interest. This 
fact is happily exemplified in the following pas- 
sage from a letter dated "New ville, September 
20th ; v and was occasioned by the occurrence in 
this part of the tour, of several Bible associ- 
ations, auxiliary to the American, instead of the 
Philadelphia, Bible Society : " I find the friends 
of the American Bible society every where, at 
first, jealous of my mission, and cool in their 
reception of me. But they have their feelings 
much changed, if I can get an opportunity to 
preach to them. Your magnanimous resolution 
to send an agent to aid the cause of the bible, 



MEMOIR OF BACON. 2i;> 

without confining him to efforts in favour of 
your own institution, ' heaps coals of fire on 
the heads/ of your suspecting friends (for it 
would be hard to call them enemies) and will 
raise your character more than a thousand auxi- 
liaries, without it." 

The remarks and suggestions which Mr. 
Bacon proceeds, in the same letter, to make in 
relation to the best mode of eliciting and com- 
bining the resources of the religious public in 
favour of the Bible cause, are capable of the 
same advantageous application to any of the 
great charitable objects of the day : and the 
time must come — and may it speedily arrive^ 
?,hen that, or some similar expedient shall be 
generally adopted for obtaining the means of 
evangelising and converting the world : "Let a 
general association be formed in every coun- 
ty: of which the members are to pay one, 
and two dollars, annually : and in every vil- 
lage and congregation, erect an auxiliary; of 
which the terms of membership shall be fifty, 
and even twenty-five cents. To effect this, let 
a missionary be employed to spend, at least, 
four or six weeks, in every county, with instruc- 
tions to leave the collections in the treasury of the 
associations in which they shall be respectively 
obtained. By this means no county could be ex- 
pected to produce the cause less than one thou- 
sand dollars. From many, three times that 
amount would be realised. — The great advan 



M& MEMOIR OF BACON. 

tage of village associations, is, that they admit of 
so reducing the terms of membership as to 
bring them within the meaus of all, and thus 
uniting in the object, the entire community. It 
is better for the cause to have two hundred con- 
tributors of twenty-five cents each, than fifty at 
a dollar. You, in the former way, interest the 
feelings, and stir up the gifts and virtues, of all. 
From donors of twenty-five cents, you train 
them to become contributors of dollars, in a few 
years. Again; suppose twenty men scattered 
throughout a county, and all> the members of oue 
society. Two or three only, in the county-town, 
have the business to do :< — the rest are idle. But 
if you have twenty auxiliaries, you have work 
enough for all : each has a post of duty to fill, 
and his zeal is kept warm by the excitement. 
Besides, the more local you make the societies, 
the deeper interest you excite in those who are 
its members, to cherish and support it." 

So difficult would it appear to have been for 
this zealous missionary to spare his zeal where 
good might be done, or to confine its range to 
any single class of benevolent objects, that few 
besides would have effected as much for any one 
in the same time, as he found the means of ac- 
complishing for several. That branch of his 
correspondence which was carried on with the 
particular friends and promoters of Sunday 
schools, discovers so much ardour, observation, 
and industry to have been exercised in behalf 



MEMOIR OF BACGK* 217 

of these institutions, as naturally to induce the 
supposition that no other object could have shar- 
ed his attention. On the other hand, when it is 
considered that, besides the time spent in writing 
to individuals on his route, in forming, advising, 
and exciting to increased duties, a great num- 
ber of Bible associations, — he travelled upwards 
of one hundred miles, and preached eight times, 
weekly, and kept up a very full and almost daily 
correspondence with the committee,— it is nearly 
incredible that he should have been concerned 
in any cause, except the direct business of his 
mission. 

On the SSd of September, he reached Har- 
risburg ; having pressed the object of his mis- 
sion in Lancaster, York, Gettysburg, Chambers- 
burg, Shippensburg, Newville, and Carlisle, 
and every intermediate village and settlement 
where it could be done with the prospect of ad- 
vantage. His perseverance, and judicious zeal 
is evinced in a single paragraph of his letter, un- 
der the Harrisburg date. " This mission is 
most seasonable,— bad as the times are thought 
to be. You can scarcely imagine the cries and 
groans of distress throughout the country. But, 
I will not listen to them. If retrenchments are 
to be made, the Lord's treasury is no place to 
begin them at. I tell the people to lay hands 
first on their sins, and follies, and extravagancies ; 
to place them under a heavy contribution indeed, 
before thev venture to defraud religion of its. 



318 MEMOIR OF BACON, 

claims.*"— He had now, to a certain extent, made 
himself acquainted by actual experience, with 
the nature of a minister's duties and consola- 
tions, and from a deep sense of both, states, 
<• I must say, I am a happy man ; and would 
not be out of the ministry for a thousand worlds. 
I am a poor worm ; but the Lord does bless me; 
and I will praise him." 

In his next, dated Jersey-Shore, Lycoming 
county, October 6th, he writes, " Do pray for 
me. One prayer of faith — the ' effectual fer- 
vent prayer of the righteous/ would help me 
much. Think of your poor weak, exhausted, 
wandering missionary ; often so oppressed as 
not to be able to hold up his head. 1 am now, 
too far spent tojwrite : — and must drink my herb- 
tea, and go to bed." ##*■#*< One thing I be- 
lieve I may state, and that is, that, hitherto, we 
have succeeded in getting all the money the peo- 
ple bring to church with them, out of their pock- 
ets. In one instance, an old German came sev- 
eral miles into town on Monday morning, to give 
a dollar, after having heard the Sunday even- 
ing sermon, at which he had contributed his 
cent— all he had with him." ****«$ preach 
every where, and at all times, if an opportunity 
serves. At Millersburg, 1 arrived at sun- set, ask- 
ed for permission to preach ; obtained a place— 
the Methodist meeting-house; — and in less than 
an hour after my arrival, without any previous 
notice, was preaching to two hundred people/' 



MEMOIR OF BACON* gl9 

tt $ * « What a privilege is that christian inter- 
course with my dear Philadelphia brethren, of 
which I am now deprived ! Oh could I but 
meet them in these mountains ! — but, we will 
try to meet in the skies." 

From " Warriors' Run, October 5th," he 
writes : " I have need of j our letters, and of 
your prayers. I look through the formidable 
list of my appointments, and sigh and even weep 
over it; and cry for help, to Heaven- My 
health is unsettled. I should not be surprised, 
if some of these mountains should afford me a 
shelter in sickness ; nor must you, if some of 
them furnish me with a grave. But I live, and 
am willing to die, for the Lord. His presence 
is my abiding solace : — no hiding of his face* 
or withdrawing of his favour, does he call me 
to experience." 

A passage in his letter from Bellefonte, on 
the 7th, while it depicts strongly, the pious 
frame of his feelings, w r ould seem almost to 
carry in it a presentiment of the early as well as 
the signally happy termination of his own earthly 
labours. u I had a lonely ride through the woods 
this day, of nearly twenty miles — The yellow 
tints of autumn upon the trees, and the fading 
green of the fields seemed continually to admon- 
ish me of my own destined decay, and indeed 
made me more than half willing to consider my- 
self as an autumnal leaf just about to fall. I could 
not however forbear wishing I might be rather 



%%0 MEMOIR OF BACON. 

like the peach-trees every where to be seen broken 
down and absolutely killed by the fruit which 
they had brought to full maturity. Oh if I 
could fall by the luxuriance of my fruit-bearing ! 
but the Lord's will be done." 

A very unequivocal proof of his sincere love 
of the work in which he was so laboriously 
active, was, the unaffected cheerfulness with 
which he pursued even the most arduous and 
painful parts of it. The following paragraphs 
are from under the date of " Milton, October 
11th." 

u This afternoon," he observes, Ci at two 
o'clock, I preached at Watsonstowu, according to 
a prior appointment. On my arrival, I was about 
to stop at a tavern door, when an old man thus 
addressed me ; — <Bon ? t-stop here : yonder is the 
house where you are to stop, and the barn where 
you are to preach. And when you have done 
that, I'll thank you to come and spend the night.* 
I determined that, since the Lord had made me 
a new threshing instrument, as he promised Jacob, 
I would not use it with the less zeal for being 
on a threshing' floor. I did my best : The con- 
gregation was determined to hear the sermon at 
greater length at the nearest church, c For/ said 
they, 4 had we thought it would have been like 
this, we would have had all the people out*' ; 

Mr. Bacon^s labours in the promotion of all 
the objects to which he had hitherto been devot- 
ad ; were much in detail. But his mind was ca 



MEMOIR OF BACON. £21 

pable of the most comprehensive survey of the 
more general relations, and remoter results, ol 
charitable and christian exertions : and it was 
the benevolence of his heart, and a principle of 
duty, which prompted him to such labours as, 
humble and subordinate in themselves, were still 
the necessary parts of the system. But he never 
lost sight of the relative place which they held in 
the grand outline which they all went to fill. "I 
have placed this cause," he writes, under date 
of October 13th, "on the broad basis of the 
wants of six hundred millions of heathens,— 
making those of the million of people within 
our own limits,whom I suppose to be destitute— 
a matter of subordinate concern : and insisting 
that, until every human being can read the won- 
derful works of God in his own language, our 
efforts must be unremitting. If we rest the 
subject on any basis of smaller dimensions, the 
people directly imagine that their aid is no longer 
wanted." 

It was Mr. Bacon ? s earliest and uniform 
opinion, that among all the measures dictated by 
the benevolence, and executed by the zeal of thfc 
present age, for the spread of the gospel, there 
could exist no possible cause of unfriendly com- 
petition. Hence, in urging the claims of one 
object of christian benevolence, he was careful 
not to disparage the just merits of any other. 
The comparative value of Bible and Missionary 
efforts, has been often canvassed ; but, from the 



&&% MEMOIR OF BACOIS. 

intimate connexion subsisting between them, 
and their direct tendency by different means to 
the same blessed results, it can never be exactly 
estimated by human sagacity. Any disquisition 
proceeding upon the attempt to contrast their 
respective merits, or upon any other grounds 
than the intention of magnifying the importance 
of both, must be considered in the character of an 
unprofitable, if not a misleading speculation. — 
Mr. Bacon continues ; " The interest, and zeal, 
and means, of this part of the community, have 
lately been pre-engaged in favour of the Mission- 
ary cause by the exertions of an agent from the 
parent society. Of this however, I would not 
complain, if the cause of Bibles were not beaten 
down, in order to raise that of missions upon it. 
This is wrong. In organising associations for 
Bibles, I commonly advert to the importance of 
missions ; but in pleading for missions, they de- 
preciate the Bible cause : and have in some in- 
stances raised the former, on the ruins of the lat- 
ter. One instance, I find, where Bible funds 
have been transferred from their object, to aid 
missions. This is ' a pious fraud/ at least." 

Having traversed no less than twenty-one 
of the counties of Pennsylvania in different di- 
rections, and in the incessant exercise of zeal 
and industry, such as have been described, he 
returned to Philadelphia, on the fifteenth day of 
November. 



MEMOIR OF BACON. 223 

The report which he presented to the com- 
mittee on the 22d, is an interesting, and to the 
institution for which it was prepared, must have, 
proved, a highly useful document. An enlarg- 
ed view of the cause to which it related, was 
presented ; a body of valuable specific informa- 
tion, adduced ; and many measures of great 
prospective advantage to the Bible interest, wera 
suggested for the consideration of the society, 
which were supported by arguments founded on 
actual experience and observation. The conclu- 
sion of this report exhibits the following summa- 
ry view of the labours of its indefatigable author^ 
in this interesting mission, accompanied with a 
very appropriate expression of the characteristic 
piety and humility of his feelings : — " In fine^, 
your agent was absent from this city sixty-nine 
days ; traversed twenty-one counties ; preached 
seventy-four discourses ; and during that time 
travelled more than one thousand miles. H© 
has had much fatigue and many anxious hours 
for the success of this mission. When he looks 
back on the distance, the time, the labour, the 
heat, the cold, the weakness of body and want 
of faithfulness, by which his journey has been 
rendered memorable to him, he cannot but ad- 
mire the degree of health and happiness which 
he now enjoys ; and is sensibly affected with the 
boundless goodness and unmerited grace of God. 
If your agent was enabled to endure fatigue : 
if he could plead the cause of the Bible ; if 



%%tk MEMQI& O*' BACOX. 

people could be gathered to hear ; if a disposi- 
tion to imbibe instruction was witnessed ; if their 
feelings could be excited and drawn out into ac- 
tion ; all was done by the Lord. There is no 
room for the board or their agent to feel the 
slightest self-gratulation. But there is room to 
praise God continually, that so much has been 
done; and to lament for that unfaithfulness^ 
which has prevented much more, that ought to 
have been done." 

The board of managers of the Philadelphia 
Bible society, in their report read on the next 
annual meeting,, made very honourable meution 
of the zeal and fidelity which their agent had 
evinced in performing this mission; and from the 
report of the same board in the year still subse- 
quent, it appears that the effects of his labours 
were visible in the substantial benefits which 
they had conferred on the cause of the Bible, in 
their territorial limits 

A strong impression in favour of that, and eve- 
ry congenial measure for extending and increas- 
ing the knowledge and power of the true religion 
among men, was certainly made wherever this 
mission reached. Besides referring this effect 
to the direct blessing of God, to which it is ulti- 
mately to be wholly ascribed, we are able to see 
in the qualifications of the instrument, and the 
fitness of the means employed, a positive adap- 
tation of both, to the production of the happy re- 
sult. 



MEMOIR OF BACON. g25 

Mr. Bacon was an honest advocate of the 
cause he plead : and his sincerity implied more 
than a cold assent of the understanding to the 
reasons which prove the importance of the ob- 
ject. Every consideration which he pressed 
upon others, had deeply affected his own heart. 
A sacred warmth and impressive sincerity of 
feeling, manifested themselves in every expres- 
sion, and every effort which the cause drew from 
him. From the very conformation of human 
nature, this qualification alone, must have gained 
to his message not only the attention, but the 
partial assent of all, and the cordial and active 
concurrence of a large majority, of his auditors^ 
wherever he moved. 

He was wholly devoted to his work. Every 
inferior and unrelated concern was not only un- 
able to divert his pursuit, but was nearly dis- 
missed from his heart, and excluded from his 
thoughts. His work was before him ; and it 
engrossed the undivided energies of his body 

and mind. 

He was likewise faithful. More is implied 

in this quality, than an industrious and diligent 
attention to the work of his mission. He had 
made the cause his own : — every advantage was 
sought and seized with active and untiring avidi- 
ty : his mind was bent incessantly on the sub- 
ject, -^-inventing arguments, devising means, sur- 
veying for information, the past, and pressing for 
fresh motives to exertion, into the future. Bis 

§9 



£26 MEMOIR OF BACON* 

work was, in a manner, identified with his exis- 
tence itself ; and its success interwoven with the 
highest ideas of happiness which he suffered 
himself to cherish. 

It must be added, that he was also eloquent 
His address was respectable ; his elocution dis^ 
tinct and just; his language impressive; and 
his conceptions original and striking. This 
would have been the entire definition and utmost 
reach of his eloquence, had not divine grace laid 
the foundation of a far higher and more affecting 
kind. His look, his manner, his voice, his sub- 
ject, his arguments, his allusions, — every thing in 
short, belonging to the composition and delivery 
of his discourses, which could serve as the in- 
dex of his feelings and the ruling passion oi 
his mind, took its character from that f unction 
from the holy One/ by which his soul had been 
so richly imbued. His eloquence was that of a 
messenger from God, breathing the temper of 
Heaven, forgetting himself while treating with 
immortal natures, for the honour of the King of 
glory, and searching by the light which had been 
imparted to his own mind, the dark recesses of 
the hearts of others. The criterion of true el- 
oquence is its power to convince, to impress, and 
to move the mind, for useful ends. Subjected 
to the test of this standard, Mr. Bacon must, 
as a preacher of the gospel, be pronounced elo- 
quent 



MEMOIR OF BACON. 227 



CHAP. IX. 

Shortly after the discovery of this country^ 
and its first settlement by the subjects of Euro- 
pean governments, the latter were seduced* 
by representations originating in the inordinate 
cupidity of the adventurers, to extend their sanc- 
tion to a traffic, by which all their American pos- 
sessions were eventually filled with enslaved Af- 
ricans. So flagrant a violation of the sacred 
laws of humanity could not fail, in the just pro- 
vidence of God, to entail on the very communi- 
ties which it was employed to benefit, evils but 
little less numerous and various, that the ini- 
quity itself had been complicated. Before the 
epoch of the independence of this country, this 
trade formed an important branch of the com- 
merce of England, and was freely permitted in 
nearly all her American colonies. But the adop- 

* It has been satisfactorily proved by an English phi* 
lanthropist,that Charles V. of Spain, and Elizabeth, of En- 
gland, who first legalised this trade in their respective do- 
minions, were both very imperfectly acquainted with its 
cruelty and injustice, as respects the immediate victims of 
it, and grossly deceived as to its impolicy in relation to the 
colonies themselves ; at the time they were prevailed upon 
to give it their sanction. The former lived to be more cor- 
rectly informed as to the inhuman nature of the traffic, and 
actually revoked, in 1542, the license which he had granted 
far carrying it on, twenty-five yaars before, 



S28 MEMOIR OF BACON. 

tion of republican forms of government in the 
different states, made way for the institution of 
such municipal regulations as had the effect to 
preclude the further importation of slaves into 
that section of the country lying to the north and 
east of Maryland. A provision was likewise 
incorporated in the Federal constitution, in 1787? 
by which Congress was authorised to pass an 
act for the entire abolition of the trade by Amer- 
ican citizens, at the expiration of twenty years. 
A law to that effect was, accordingly, enacted in 
1807. But prior to this era, all the individu- 
al states had adopted regulations either abolish- 
ing slavery directly or prospectively, in their re- 
spective limits ; or giving to individual propri- 
etors a discretionary right, on certain prudential 
conditions, to liberate their own slaves. The 
consequence was, the rapid accumulation in the 
community, of a class of people, freed indeed 
from personal bondage, but still separated by 
indelible characteristics, from the great body 
of citizens ; destitute of many of their privi- 
leges, and generally debased in morals, and in 
intellect, quite below the grade of christian, 
and even of civilized society. Their improve 
ment has been the object of benevolent legis- 
lation in some of the states, of charitable as- 
sociations in others, and of general solicitude, 
in all. But every year witnessed an increase 
of their numbers, and an aggravation of the 
evils attaching to their anomalous relation to thff 



MEMOIR OF BA.CON. 229 

slave population of the country, on the one hand, 
and to the white citizens, on the other. Their 
example corrupted the first ; and their habits of 
vice and idleness were a sore annoyance to the 
last ; while their own existence which they were 
taught by no religious or intellectual culture to 
direct to any valuable end, seemed destined to 
prove, in the present and future world, a still 
heavier curse to themselves. 

In devising measures for improving or al 
tering the condition of these people, there were 
consequently presented, three distinct classes of 
evils to be provided against ; each of which was 
calculated to interest in its redress, a numerous 
and intelligent class of the community. And 
such was the fact. The wealthy slave-holder, 
if moved by no worthier motive, was obliged to 
yield to the interested consideration of preser- 
ving the people of his plantation from an inter- 
course with the free blacks ; which experience 
had unhappily proved to be injurious both to 
their morals and to their happiness. The effects 
of their improvident and predatory habits, and 
dissolute examples, were felt by a still more nu- 
merous class of citizens ; none of whom could 
be wholly indifferent to the application of an 
appropriate remedy. And, finally, every bene- 
volent mind could not fail to be moved by com- 
passion for their calamitous lot, to devise some 
measure of effectual and permanent relief, 



S30 MEMOIR OF BACOft. 

Thus, each of these three descriptions of per^ 
sons have been heard to recommend their coloni- 
zation; — but the last only, have ever evinced an 
efficient zeal in the cause, or contributed much 
important aid and encouragement towards any of 
those charitable measures which provide for the 
happiuess and ulterior improvement of the ob- 
jects of colonization. It would be to wrong the 
character of the members of the American Colo- 
nization Society, to confound, without this dis- 
crimination, the motives of its active members, 
with the various suggestions of interest which 
may have influenced individuals of very oppo- 
site characters, to declare themselves favourable 
to that part of their plan which proposes to re- 
move the free blacks out of this country. This 
measure has been deliberately approved by the 
society, as essential to the execution of their be- 
nevolent purpose in respect to the free blacks 
themselves : and as its effects must prove highly 
beneficial to the American community, this con- 
sideration may very properly have its weight, in 
the mitids of all. Still, it is maintained that 
the measures of this institution, have without 
an exception, been taken with the same tender 
regard to the interests of the people for whose 
colonization they provide, as if their accomplish- 
ment would draw in their train no advantages to 
any other class of the population. Their pro- 
ceedings stand recorded for the perusal of the 
world ; to which they can appeal with confi- 



MEMOIR OF BACON. 231 

dence for the proof of their entire accordance 
with the spirit, and the precepts of the gospel. 
The objects of this institution stated in the order 
in which their accomplishment must proceed, 
are, 

1st. The formation of a christian settlement, 
organised after the form of the best constituted 
societies, on the coast of Africa : 

Sdly. The transportation of as many of the 
free black people of this country, as shall be de- 
sirous of removing, to such settlement : 

3dly. The persevering application of the best 
means of promoting the moral and social im- 
provement and happiness of the colonists, and 
their posterity, as long as the circumstances of the 
latter, shall require their fostering care : and 

4ihly. The civilization and religious instruc- 
tion, of the native African tribes. 

The society was formed in January, 1817. 
Considering their object as strictly national, and 
possessing strong claims upon the patronage of 
Congress, the Managers submitted, in the same 
year, a proposition for its adoption by the gene- 
ral government. Their memorial was favoura- 
bly received ; but it has never yet been deemed 
advisable to press the final decision of the ques- 
tion which was taken on it. 

During the year 1818, the mission of Messrs. 
Mills and Burgess, to the western coast of Af- 
rica, was performed ; and a valuable accession 
of local information respecting the country, ob~ 



232 MEMOIR OF BACON,, 

tained by the society, by means of their united 
researches. Early in the year 1819, it had be- 
come an object of immediate interest with the 
society, to send out a select company of black 
people, under suitable superintendence, to com- 
mence the contemplated settlement 

By the act of Congress of the 3d of March, 
of this year, the President of the United States 
was authorised to institute an agency in Africa, 
for the purpose of providing an asylum for such 
Africans as should be liberated by our ships of 
war, from vessels seized in the violation of the 
provisions of the same law, for the entire sup- 
pression of the slave-trade. This act, without 
recognising (he plan of colonization as it had 
been repeatedly commended by the society, to 
the favourable notice of Congress, authorised a 
collateral measure so nearly identified with it, 
as in effect, to subserve nearly the same purpose. 
The passing of this act, and its benevolent 
bearing on the welfare of the African race, 
could not but be regarded by the society as a 
providential interposition directly propitious to 
their own cherished objects : and they resolved to 
improve the advantage which was thus offered 
them, by so adapting their movements, as to de- 
rive from the measures of the Government, the be- 
nefits of a formal co-operation In this view it was 
determined to make the station o the Government 
agency on the coast of Africa, the site of the colo- 
nial settlement ; and to incorporate in the set- 






MJEMOIU OF liACOIS. 233 

dement, all the blacks delivered over by our ships 
of war to the American Agent, as soon as the 
requisite preparations should be completed for 
their accommodation. 

Mr. Bacon had been known as the decided 
friend of both objects : and recommended to the 
appointment of the Executive as the principal 
Agent of the Government, early in the summer 
of this year. 

About the period of his return from the 
Bible mission, it was determined by the Govern- 
ment, to send a transport and ship of war to the 
coast of Africa, for the purpose of carrying out 
two agents, and as many mechanics and labour- 
ers as should be necessary to prepare a recep- 
tacle for any persons that might be liberated 
from American slave ships. Accordingly, the 
Sloop of War, Cyane, of 24 guns, was put in 
commission, and the Elizabeth, a merchant ship 
of three hundred tons, eventually chartered, 
for this service. The former was ordered to 
cruise on that station, for the purpose of inter- 
cepting vessels engaged in the slave-trade, under 
the American flag. Both of these vessels were 
lying at that time, in the harbour of New York. 

Having received priests' orders, on the 24th 
of November, in Philadelphia, Mr. Bacon en- 
tered immediately into the service of the Coloni- 
zation society. In this engagement he contin- 
ued until the 8th of January, 1820, when he re- 
ceived from the Executive of the United States' 

30 



234 MEMOIR OF BACON. 

government, his commission and instructions for 
the agency to which he had been previously de- 
signated. 

The Government had consented to receive on 
board the Elizabeth, such useful free black per- 
sons, recommended by the Society, as the ser- 
vice of the agency should require on the coast. 

About thirty families, comprehending eighty- 
nine individuals, of different sexes, and ages, 
had been selected by the Society from a much 
greater number of applicants, for this expedi- 
tion ; and were now assembling in the city of 
New York. Mr. Bacon was instructed to pro- 
ceed to that city to receive these people, equip 
them for the voyage, and superintend their em- 
barkation. He accordingly left Philadelphia 
on the 26th of November. Under this date, on 
board the steam -boat, he thus writes to the 
venerated mother of his late wife : " My en- 
gagements were such, while in Philadelphia, 
that I could not find a moment's time to address 
you." * * * "I have parted this morning with my 
dear child, — my beloved relations from York, 
and with hundreds of praying and affectionate 
friends. I cannot dwell on this subject. — My 
heart sickens with the recollection of the pain- 
ful circumstances of it. But glory to God, I do 
not mourn as one without hope. If I never see 
father, mother, child, sisters and brothers again, 
in this world ; we have reason to glorify God 
and praise his holy name, that we part in body. 



MEMOIR OF BACON. 235 

and but for a season* — I am determined to meet 
you in Heaven." * * * " O God, bless and save 
my child ! — I desire that he may be piously 
brought up, — and have the benefit of a good ex- 
ample, and good precepts." * * * " It is my ear- 
nest desire and prayer, that God may qualify and 
call him to preach the gospel." * * * " I was or- 
dained presbyter on the 24th instant, by Bishop 
White, in St. Peter's church, and preached on 
the same evening to about two thousand coloured 
people, in Bethel church." " My health has not 
been better for many years past." 

On the 16th of December he writes from 
New York : " After a day of fatigue and anxie- 
ty, I redeem a moment from sleep, to inform my 
dear friend, that we are now on the point of suc- 
ceeding in chartering a vessel for our voyage." 
" We have nameless difficulties to contend with, 
and numberless obstacles to surmount. Some of 
these arise out of the lukewarmness, some out 
of the hostility, and many from the avarice of 
men ; and others from the opposition of the 
great enemy of all good. But the gloom begins 
to break away, and light to dawn upon our cause, 
Satan literally ' has his seat' in Africa. But 
we have too much reason to believe he is not 
confined entirely to foreign shores." * * * * * 
H We expect to meet him arrayed with all his 
force, and in readiness to oppose us, inch by 
inch, in Africa. But he who fights for us, we 
are confident, must prevail. The Lord givc& 



1&6 MEMOIR OF BACON. 

us grace ; and I feel more and more disposed 
to prayer and earnest importunity for success 
in this great cause. " 

The mind, in reviewing a series of past 
events, finds it difficult so to confine its survey 
to the painful, or the pleasing, alone, as to admit 
the uncompounded feeling of pleasure, or of 
pain, which either, contemplated separately, is 
capable of producing : but calling up by the 
same effort of memory, the images of both, it 
derives from them the opposite emotions of grief 
and joy, and melts them into one uniform sensa- 
tion. So the eye turned upon a distant land- 
scape over which spots of light and shade are 
alternately scattered, admits the rays reflected 
from both; but so mingled and confounded to- 
gether as to spread over the whole scene, a twi- 
light uniformity of colouring. It is impossible 
at this period, to advert to the pleasing anticipa- 
tions expressed in the following passage from a 
letter of the 31st of December, without painfully 
connecting in idea, the event by which they were 
so soon, and so affectingly frustrated. " Though 
on the eve of sailing, I am in high spirits, — quite 
happy, my dear mother, in my prospects, and 
hopeful that a sea voyage and warm climate 
will contribute to lengthen my days. I should 
not outlive three winters in this country. I 
find every winter wears my constitution away 
very fast. Were I to stay here, I should have 
a confirmed cough in two months, — I am happy 



MEMOIR OF BACON. 237 

# 

in the prospect of a lengthened span, and in- 
creasing usefulness." 

On the 27th of December, he left New York 
for the city of Washington, where he arrived 
on the 29th, and remained until the 13th of Jan- 
uary. This period was very usefully filled up 
in learning, by personal conference with the exe- 
cutive officers of the general government, and the 
managers of the Colonization society, the views 
of both, in reference to the interesting expedi- 
tion with the direction of which he was char- 
ged. It is also' due to his memory to state, that 
his own good sense suggested a number of im- 
portant hints in relation to the undertaking, 
which served as the basis of some of the official 
instructions which he received on the occasion; 
and that his zeal and perseverance were happily 
instrumental of removing several formidable ob- 
stacles to the execution of the plan, which even 
then threatened, to delay it to a remote and 
uncertain period, and thwart some of the best 
hopes of its friends altogether. 

To his visit to the metropolis at this time, the 
writer of this memoir is indebted, for the only op- 
portunity he enjoyed, of cultivating with Mr. Ba- 
con, a personal intercourse. Short as the term of 
his stay was, it proved amply sufficient to disco- 
ver to the observation of those with whom he asso- 
ciated, many of the estimable characteristics of his 
mind. Such was the simplicity of his manners, 
and the candour of his character, as to show om 



S3S MEMOIR 01 BACOxV. 

in the mosl natural expressions, the genuine quali- 
ties of the heart. The impression which these 
were capable of making on the mind of one, till 
then a stranger, has constituted his chief motive 
for engaging in the interesting labour of prepar- 
ing for the world, this humble memorial of his 
worth. It seeks no higher merit than that of 
giving to one of the brightest examples of piety 
and christian benevolence, in the age, a just 
exhibition. The most striking feature in his 
character was the apparently entire abstraction 
of his thoughts and affections from every grovel- 
ling terrestrial object;— a trait evinced rather by 
the inimitable and peculiar sanctity, and unaf- 
fected humility of his deportment, than by any 
other form of expression. The most unskilful 
observer of the human character could hardly 
escape the impression, that a peace ineffable 
reigned in his mind, and placed it perfectly at 
rest, above the reach of the passions, and com- 
motions of ordinary life, on the elevated ground 
of an intimate communion, and constant inter- 
course with God. 

His breast seemed to be a sanctuary hallowed 
for the constant residence of the most devout, 
and sublimated affections of which the human 
soul is capable in the present world. The most 
natural employmeut of his thoughts, was prayer: 
and their most delightful exercise, praise. The 
eye of his faith had pierced through the veil of 
sensible things, and seemed to feed with awful 



MEMOIR 01 BACON. 239 

rapture, on the uncreated glory of tie eternal God- 
head. To such a man, death must be regarded only 
as the soaring of the sonl to the holy object of its 
supreme attraction, and intimate knowledge, in 
the present world. The deepest wave of the 
last flood can hardly obscure—it cannot even 
for a season, extinguish, the light of the celestial 
vision ! — Such are the reflections which the last 
interview 7 of this man of God must have excited 
in the bosoms of many of his American friends. 
Wherever he moved, he carried a kind of palpa- 
ble demonstration of the truth and power of the 
gospel, which greatly strengthened the faith, 
quickened the zeal, and encouraged the hopes, of 
the pious; and was calculated to give energy to 
the imperfect convictions of the careless on the 
subject of religion. 

The methods of God's providence are mys- 
terious and inscrutable : and all human attempts 
to conjecture the reasons on which the measures 
of his government are founded, commonly discover 
more of profanity and weakness, than of the ex- 
ercise of a judgment enlightened and regulated 
by the maxims of revelation. But there is no- 
thing merely conjectural in the supposition, that 
He who reads the future of every man's life and 
destination, does prepare for approaching scenes, 
by a special interposition, such as surrender 
themselves to the guidance of his holy Spirit. 
The belief is scriptural : it is also confirmed by ob- 
servation. It is now r easy for his friends to per- 



840 MEMOIR OF BACON. 

ceive, that Mr. Bacon was at the time of his 
embarkation for Africa, rapidly advancing in the 
improving temper of his mind, through the last 
stages of earthly maturity for the holy society of 
his Saviour, and the saints in Heaven. 

On the 13th of January he left Washington 
on his return to New York, travelling through 
the interior of Pennsylvania. He now visited 
his friends in York, for the last time. From the 
nature of the undertaking in which he was en- 
gaged, he indulged little expectation of ever re- 
newing his visit to that place ; and passed the 
three days of las stay there, in a way that well 
became his last. After preaching several times 
to the little flock from which the great Shepherd 
had separated him to higher services, he met 
them around the communion altar; and both to 
himself and them, the pain of along and event- 
ful separation appeared to be nearly excluded 
by the joys of christian fellowship, and com- 
munion with the Father of their spirits. 

He arrived in New York, on the 19th, where 
his colleague, John P. Bankson, Esq. and Dr. 
Samuel A., dozer, the Agent of the Coloniza- 
tion society soon after, joined him ; and the 
people destined for the voyage, were already as- 
sembled. On the 20th, he thus writes to his 
friends in Pennsylvania: " I arrived safe, yes- 
terday morning ; and find we shall be at sea in 
a very few days." * * "We have some hundreds 
of applications from the black people which v 



MEMOIR OF BACOJS. 2^1 

are obliged to refuse. "I am perfectly convinced 
that the Lord has led me on step by step, to quali- 
fy me for this business. You, and my dear 
friends, and my child, will never have cause to 
regret this undertaking. We are making our 
purchases, and lading the ship— and perhaps 
shall only receive the letter which you send by 
return of mail." 

On the 30th of January, the entry in his 
journal states, ^From the 19th, to this date, I 
have been incessantly engaged in purchasing and 
putting on board the Elizabeth, our provisions, 
tools, implements and other necessaries. I have 
preached on Sundays, in the different churches in 
the city. To-morrow is the day fixed for em- 
barking the peopled 

Monday 31st, was an interesting day. The 
people assembled at the African church, to the 
number of several thousands, to witness the so- 
lemnities with which it was expected the em- 
barkation would be attended, and join in a pro- 
cession to the vessel then lying in the North 
River. But before the doors were opened, it 
was perceived that the rush which must follow, 
would endanger the lives of many of the multi- 
tude : and they were ordered to be kept shut. 
The concourse then moved towards the ship ; 
but Mr. Bacon foresaw the disastrous conse- 
quences of bringing so unmanageable a con- 
course, as four or six thousand eager spectators^ 

down to the verge of the river : and stopped its 

Si 



S4S MEMOIR OF BACON. 

farther progress. He ascended a neighbouring 
piazza, and after fervently commending the mul- 
titude to God, and addressing them in a few ap- 
propriate words, he returned to the street, and 
with great address and prudence, sent the ship's 
people, individually, on board. The concourse 
still kept their ground, until the people were all 
secretly embarked. " The fact was not known/'" 
says Mr. Bacon, " till I announced it, to the 
great surprise of the multitude : — and thus pro- 
bably, were numbers restrained from rushing, 
through inconsiderate curiosity, into a watery 
grave." 

Before the wind proved favourable for putting 
to sea, the Elizabeth found herself closely ice- 
bound, and incapable even of dropping down into 
the Harbour. In this situation she remained until 
the 6th of February, when a passage was opened 
through the ice, and the ship run out to sea, with 
a fair wind. The crew were all in good health, 
at this date ; and manifested a harmonious and 
subordinate spirit. The agents were animated 
with a common principle of benevolence and 
zeal ; and many of the emigrants appeared in- 
fluenced by the religion which a majority of the 
most influential, professed to have embraced with 
a true faith. 

In the organisation of this service, Messrs. 
Bacon aud Bankson had been appointed colle 
giate Agents of the Government of the United 
States, to whom the direction of the expedition 



M&MOIIl OF BACON* 243 

was entrusted. The people were all considered 
as attached to this joint agency, and to remain 
entirely subject to its controul, as long after their 
arrival on the coast, as their services should be 
needful, or until they should receive a regular 
discharge. Their official instructions required 
them to make the island of Sherbro, on the coast 
of Africa, their first place of destination, and 
either there, or in some more eligible situation, to 
land the people and stores, and proceed to erect 
cottages for the accommodation of themselves, 
and at least, three hundred captured Africans. 
They were likewise instructed to plant and 
cultivate corn and vegetables ; and contribute by 
their own industry, to subsist and defray the 
expenses of the establishment. 

Mr. Samuel A. Crozer was the sole Agent 
of the Colonization society ; who was entrusted 
with the goods and stores sent out by the society, 
for the purposes of conciliating the favour of the 
native chiefs, purchasing lands, and ministering 
to the health and comfort of the people. The se- 
lection and purchase of a territory for the con- 
templated settlement, were committed to this 
agent ; who was instructed to avail himself of 
the advice and good offices of the agents ap- 
pointed on the part of the Government. In 
planning this expedition, great confidence had 
been reposed in the statements of Messrs. 
Mills and Burgess in relation to the friendly 
disposition of the natives on and near the Sher- 



344 MEMOIR OF 13AC02S* 

bro River ; the salubrity of the climate; and 
the eligibility of the site which they had re- 
commended for a place of settlement. The in- 
structions of the agents were framed in a gene- 
ral conformity with their recommendations* It 
is only to be regretted that those gentlemen had 
not spent a longer period in that country, explor 
ed the coast more extensively, and used the means 
of acquiring a more exact and certain know- 
ledge of the different subjects on which they 
were obliged to report. The instructions of 
the agents had been drawn up under an erro- 
neous impression, as to the true state of several 
of these particulars ; and to this cause must be 
partially attributed the fatal miscarriage of the 
expedition. 

The subsequent extracts from Mr. Bacon's 
journal of the voyage, discover it to have been 
marked with some circumstances of an unpro- 
pitious and eventful character. " Monday, 
February 7th, 1820. Still lying to, off the high 
lands of Neversink, waiting for the Cyane who 
is still within the Light. The people were com- 
fortably lodged through the night. We soon 
got under way, and proceeded to sea. The 
wind was fair most of the day, and carried 
us forward at the rate of ten miles an hour. 
Nearly all the people on board are sea- 
sick." " February 8th. The people are reco- 
vering from their sickness. The weather is 
still favourable. The evening closed in cheer- 



» 



MEMOIR OF BACON. 245 

fill worship of God in the steerage, by the 
emigrants; neither of the agents being well 
enough to be present." " February 10th. At 
night, it began to blow, and the gale became tre- 
mendous ; which lasted till morning. The aw- 
ful scene we passed through is not to be described. 
I however, never lost sight of the promises of 
God ; and never, for a moment, doubted of our 
eventual arrival on the coast of Africa; but 
through inuch tribulation and distress. I still felt 
it a duty to pray continually and earnestly, and 
felt an unshaken reliance in the efficacy of the. 
prayers of the church of God. I considered 
God had entered into covenant with his church, 
to answer their prayers for its success. Christ 
is the head of the church ; he must prevail, and 
so must all the faithful prayers of his people. I 
found it sweet to be here, and did rejoice in the 
dominion of God." " February 11th. A little 
before sun-set, the wind began to rise; and 
it soon blew a gale, more severe, if possible, 
than in the preceding night." We shipped 
nearly a hundred seas, — some of which were 
very heavy. The binnacle was washed off, and 
compasses broken. Sometimes the ship was 
before the wind ; — sometimes she was rolling in 
the trough of the sea ; sometimes they lost all 
command of her. During the latter part of the 
night, they hove to, and we rolled about till day- 
light, when the wind abated. These three last 
nights were awful ones indeed; but in the midst 



246 MEMOIR OF BACON. 

of the dangers, — when every sea seemed to 
be about to swallow us up,- — and every fresh 
blast of wind stronger than the last; in the 
midst of all, I rejoiced in God and in the * help 
of his countenance/ I could ask myself, whe- 
ther there was another place in t^ie universe, 
I would prefer to be in, at that moment? — and 
I desire to give glory to God, that I could say, 
there was none. Duty had called me here ; 
God was with me ; and I was happy. A cove- 
nant God ; a triumphant Saviour ; a holy Bi- 
ble ; and a peaceful conscience, — all how pre- 
cious !" " February 12th. We have a calm sea, 
and the people were on deck, and seemed to 
gain new life and spirits. We have prayers in 
the cabin, morning and evening. We fell in 
with the wreck of the Schooner ' Elizabeth, of 
Boston/ The Mate boarded her, and found 
no one on board. We lay to for some time, in 
hope of falling in with some of her crew in her 
long boat. A general sentiment of gratitude 
seemed to pervade our people, that the Eliza- 
beth, of New York (our ship) was not in a simi- 
lar condition.'* 

On the 16th, having the prospect of speaking 
a ship bound into the United States, Mr. Bacon 
wrote to his friends in Pennsylvania: 

"We are proceeding rapidly towards the 
place of our destination, with a delightful breeze 
pnd charming weather. The thermometer in 
our companion-way, is standing at 66 de- 



MEMOIR OF BACON. $■¥/ 

grees." " We have now been out ten days. 
We parted from the Cyane going out of the 
harbour of New York, and have not heard of 
her since/* " We have little to say in relation 
to the behaviour of our people, except in their 
commendation. No accident has occurred since 
we came out of port, to damp our spirits. Every 
thing seems to be as it should be. Harmony 
prevails. — We want only more gratitude." 

In consequence of the recommendation of the 
agents, the Rev. Daniel Coker, on the 18th, 
formed a society in conformity to the Methodist 
discipline: consisting of twenty-five communi- 
cants. Three magistrates had likewise been 
appointed for the preservation of order among 
the emigrants, and the protection of their respec- 
tive rights. 

"February 19th. We have continued our 
consultations for the good of our charge. It is 
determined to call our colony by the name of the 
country where it shall be established." f* *■ # 
a To-day I was able to preach in the steerage : 
and gave notice of two services on next Sabbath j 
we also notified a fast on the same day, and a 
general thanksgiving when we should arrive in 
sight of Africa."' 

Mr. Bacon here relates a perilous scene of 
confusion and strife between some of the officers 
of the ship, and a part of the passengers, in 
consequence of the very reprehensible miscon- 
duct of the latter ; in which the authority of the 



4Mb MEMOIR 0*' I3ACOX. 

master came near being overpowered by the vio- 
lence of the people. The interference of the 
agents was, at first, altogether unavailing to 
quell the disorder; but by a prudent decision of 
conduct on their part, seconded by the forbear- 
ance of the officers of the vessel, the difference 
was, through the blessing of God, happily 
composed without the necessity of proceeding to 
those extreme measures which the case seemed 
at first, too likely to provoke. The unlucky 
dogs that had been the cause of the commotion 
which threatened so serious a termination, were 
thrown overboard ; and no overt act of insubor- 
dination on the part of the people, was repeated 
during the remainder of the voyage. In refer- 
ence to this affair, Mr. Bacon, with his usual 
piety, states : u At one moment, there was great 
appearance of a general engagement between 
the ship's crew and emigrants; in which case 
many lives would have been lost, and the ship 
exposed to be cast away for want of persons 
capable of navigating her. It was a great in- 
stance of God ? s mercy that we were not ruined 
in a moment. Blessed be his name^ that we 
were saved from self-destruction." 

a February S5th. This day we observed 
as a season of fasting and prayer. I preached 
iu the morning, from Ezra viii. verses 21, 22, 
23. God gave me his assistance; and we 
had a profitable season. Several of the col- 
oured preachers and extorters continued thr 



MEMOIR OF BVCOtf* 2ii> 

services through the day. Peter Small, the chief 
actor in the late disturbance, apologised for his 
conduct, and we have had a day of quiet and 
harmony ; I bless the Lord for all His mercies, 
especially for the peace which he has restored 
to us." 

A dangerous leak was providentially disco- 
vered and stopped, on the 1st of March, which 
had, for several days, filled the ship's hold at the 
rate of twenty-four inches in an hour. 

It was but too apparent that a mutinous spirit 
was secretly working in the minds of some of 
the people on board ; who waited only to be lan- 
ded in Africa, in order to vent it in such acts of 
personal hostility to the agents, and of direct 
resistance to their authority, as would subvert 
the very design of the expedition. In order to 
test the temper of the people, and if possible, to 
anticipate any unruly proceedings which might 
grow out of it, when it should become necessary 
to subject them to a more rigid controul than the 
circumstances had hitherto required, Mr. Grozer 
published on the same day, the instructions of 
the society, in relation to the apportionment of 
lands,* in the contemplated settlement. This 
was accompanied with a full explanation of the 
relation which the people sustained to the Colo- 
nization society, and to the government of the 
United States, respectively ; and of the obliga- 

* See Appendix, Note VII, 



350 MEMOIR 0¥ BACON. 

tions and duties, mutually attaching to them and 
the directors of the expedition. Indications of 
strong disaffection were, on this occasion, mani- 
fested by a few individuals ; but a large majority 
acquiesced in the authority of the agents, at the 
time ; and the dissatisfied persons iii a few days 
afterwards, apologised for their contumacy, and 
petitioned to be restored to confidence. The 
journal proceeds : 

" March 2d. At half past ten, land was 
discovered over our lee-bow — the ship standing 
S. E. It proved to be the Islands of Fuego 
and Brava, the most western of the Cape Verds. 
We were unable to weather them, and are now 
becalmed a little to leeward of them." 

"March 7th. We are uow on soundings, 
A Sunday school was formed on board the ship 
to-day : Bibles were distributed to the crew : 
and I gave to each a prayer-book. They ap 
peared grateful for them." 

"March 8th. We enjoy uninterrupted quiet 
on board : and are one hundred and twenty 
miles to the north-west of Cape Sierra Leone/-* 
A variety of orders were issued to regulate the 
intercourse of the people with the colonists of 
Sierra Leone; and appointments distributed 
among them, principally with a view to secure 
their attachment to the service. A committee of 
three, was dignified with the title of "Members 
of Council;'* another was called, the if Com- 
mittee of Trade :" To these were likewise ad~ 



MEMOIR OF BA.CON. 251 

(led a " Register of Public Acts," and a " Co. 
lonial Secretary." This measure was produc- 
tive of a very happy effect, and reflects credit 
on the good sense of the agents. 

" March 9th. At nine o'clock this morning/* 
the journal states, " We discovered the high- 
lands in the neighbourhood of Cape Sierra Le- 
one : and on entering the harbour of Freetown, 
about three o'clock in the evening, were boarded 
by a canoe carrying several Kroo-men, who per- 
form nearly all the hard labour of the town. This 
race of people are remarkably large and well 
proportioned, and generally, have fine intelligent 
countenances. Their country is on the Guinea 
coast, in latitude about 5 degrees N. whence they 
sail in their canoes to the different European posts 
on the coast, and hire themselves at the rate of 
four dollars per month : and are frequently ab- 
sent from home for several years. Their whole 
dress, when employed in their work, consists of a 
single piece of cotton, or bafta. Our people clo- 
thed those who came on board, decently. At 
four o'clock, we dropped our anchor in the har 
bour of Sierra Leone. We were immediately 
visited by a number of officers from shore ; and 
saw several American emigrants brought out 
some years since, by Captain Paul Cuffee ; all of 
whom were respectable in their appearance, 
and happy in their circumstances. Our sick 
have all recovered, and passengers and crew 
enjoy perfect health. We spent the evening 



2m 



MEMOIR OF BACOK. 



on board, in acts of thanksgiving and praise. 
Surely we have reason for gratitude." 



MLUOIK Ol UACON. 253 



CHAP. X. 



It is due to the zeal, good judgment, and 
uniform fidelity of the Rev. Daniel Coker, of 
the Methodist church, who went out in the 
Elizabeth, and of the value of whose services, 
both during the voyage, and on the coast, the 
agents made very honourable mention, and the 
society have received the most substantial proofs, 
to observe in anticipation, that he has continued 
to the present time, to justify, by a consistent 
course of upright and discreet conduct, the con- 
fidence reposed in him. 

On the 10th, Mr. Bacon, and his colleagues 
went ashore ; and, as the natural history, and 
a local knowledge of Africa, are becoming sub- 
jects of general interest in this country, the ex- 
tracts from his journal are here continued. 

a We visited the market. It was too late 
for meat or fish ;— but tropical fruits and vegeta- 
bles were abundant. We saw bananas, plan- 
tains, pine-apples, oranges, limes, guavas, rice, 
cassada, yams, sweet-potatoes and other pro- 
ductions of the country." " Several small beeves 
were grazing in the streets ; and all quite 
fat." u The market- women seemed to be all 
Kroos or Timinies," " Myself, with two others 
again went on shore about four o'clock, and 
strolled down to the Kroo-men's village. Oh, 



354? MEMOIR OF BACON. 

what a field for evangelical labour amongst 
them ! How lamentable that these fine people 
do not attract the notice of the religious world. 
We passed their hamlet, and saw hundreds of 
them engaged in a variety of sports and amuse- 
ments." The following extracts of a letter to 
a friend in Philadelphia, are in continuation of 
the same subject. u You may depend on it, 
there is work for us here : there is work for 
Missionaries ; for teachers ; for good men of all 
descriptions." " I am struck with wonder at 
the appearance of the native Africans. The sickly 
and depressed countenance of a Philadelphia 
coloured man, is not to be seen amongst them. 
A noble aspect, — a dignified mien, — a frank and 
open countenance, the eutire demeanor of the 
wild man ! Sir, it is worth a voyage to Africa to 
see the Kroo-men. I was present at one of their 
amusements, not much unlike your opera per- 
formanees. The speakers were accompanied by 
a pleasant music on a sort of shepherd's pipe. 
There were more than one hundred present ; 
and seated on the ground in a circle. The 
speakers and actors had their places in the cen- 
tre. I could not understand them. 1 remained 
some time speculating about the origin of this. 
I could almost persuade myself that they were 
fast becoming civilized ! as theatrical amuse- 
ments seem to indicate a state of civilization 
above the savage life. I suppose the play I saw, 
and those performed in Philadelphia have, the 



MEMOIR OF BACON. 255 

one, about as much religion as the other." "These 
people never sell each other for slaves, nor suf- 
fer any others to do it. Being faithful to them- 
selves, they have none of those sufferings to en- 
dure which other tribes feel with so great se- 
verity." 

"March 11th. I again went on shore, for 
the purpose of visiting Leicester Mountain ; 
but twice missed my way, and returned. I pass- 
ed six or seven native villages, and asked for 
water at as many different huts. I always met 
with the most friendly reception. The natives 
manifest much benevolence of feeling." "March 
12th. I preached at 10 o'clock, on the ship's 
deck. — Several coloured men fron Sierra Leone, 
were present." " The ship's crew were very at- 
tentive, and seemed impressed with sacred truth. 
At one o'clock I called by appointment on governor 
McCarthy, and met with a civil reception." 
" One half the coloured population here would 
instantly emigrate if we would receive them. 
This we shall of course, prevent. Religion is 
in a languishing state in Freetown." 

" March 13th. Dining to day with the colo- 
nial governor, our table was entirely and sump- 
tuously supplied, from the productions of Africa. 
Those of no country are more various 5 and still 
the greater part are of spontaneous growth." 
" The English have claims on all that part of 
the coast, which stretches from Sierra Leone to the 
Gambia, north : and as far as Cape Shilling, 



256 MEMOIR OF BACON. 

perhaps beyond it, south." •• Oh Africa, my 
heart bleeds for thee, and thy scattered and 
weeping children! Is it not of the justice of 
God, that we, the white people, cannot well ex- 
ist in this climate ? God only can keep it for 
Africa!" 

At the last preceding date, the Cyane had 
not arrived in Sierra Leone. The charter-party 
of the Elizabeth gave the agents no authority 
to detain that ship beyond a very few days on 
the coast. Not only a place of settlement, but 
even of debarkation, was yet to be sought, for 
the passengers and stores. Kizzel, an African 
of some consideration on the coast, and the pro- 
prietor of a small settlement on the Island of 
Shevbro, in whom, from the recommendations 
of Messrs. Mills and Burgess, the confidence 
of the agents had been unsuspectingly reposed, 
was at his residence, forty leagues distant from 
Sierra Leone. The soundings near the entrance 
of the Sherbro, had not been taken ; and great 
doubt was entertained as to the practicability 
of bringing the ship down to KizzePs settle- 
ment, from the shoalness of the water. Under 
these circumstances Mr. Bankson was imme- 
diately despatched in a small vessel, to explore 
the Sherbro sound, and provide a suitable place 
for the landing of the stores, and for the accom- 
modation of the people, until a site should be 
chosen, and land"? obtained, for their permanent 
establishment. In order the more effectually to 



MEMOltt OF BACON. 257 

execute the purposes of the expedition, Mr. Ba- 
con on the 1/th, purchased the Augusta, a shoo- 
ner of one hundred tons' burden, on hoard of 
which a part of the Elizabeth's freight was trans- 
ferred on the same day; and both vessels imme- 
diately proceeded to sea. Having doubled cape 
Sierra Leone, the vessels proceeded towards 
the entrance of the Sherbro sound, where the 
Elizabeth, unable to proceed further with safety, 
anchored on the 18th. The schooner, in running 
too near the shore, grounded ; by which she 
sustained a trifling injury; but was got off on 
the same day. 

Mr. Bankson having returned on board, from 
his visit to KizzePs residence, made a report 
highly favourable to the wishes of his colleagues, 
both as to the facilities for landing, and the con- 
veniences for accommodating the people, and 
depositing the stores, at that place. Kizzel 
had likewise tendered the best use of his in- 
terest with the King and head men of the ad- 
jacent coast, in opening with them, an immedi- 
ate negotiation for the lands, and bringing it to 
a speedy issue. Animated by these flattering 
prospects, the agents made immediate prepara- 
tions for the trans shipment of the stores *nd 
people, from the Elizabeth, to KizzePs town* 
The distance was about six leagues. 

March 20th, Mr. Bacon arrived off Campe- 

lar, the place of KizzePs settlement. " At 

half past ten," he states, " I went on shore and 
33 






S58 MEMOIR OF BACOK. 

was received with joy by Mr. Kizzel and hi? 
people. He wept as we walked together, to hi* 
house. I dined with him ou fish and rice, 
dressed with palm oil. Our people were sen? 
on shore, in boats. We unladed our schooner, 
and sent back Mr. Bankson to the ship for the 
stores. All the people got fixed during the day. 
in the huts provided by Mr. Kizzel ; and at se- 
ven o'clock, we all went into the little chuicb 
and had a joyful season of evening prayer. 
About twenty native Africans, nearly naked* 
were present. The sight of natives mingling in 
our morning and evening worship, and even 
joining in the tune, and some of the words of our 
songs of praise, was a refreshing one. Mr. 
Kizzel is a pious man ;* and has kept up wor- 
ship amongst them a long time. I exhorted 
in English, and he in Sherbro. This was an 
affecting season of devotion ! It was worth liv- 
ing an age to participate in it, with our feelings \ r 
The Cyane having arrived at Sierra Leone, 
immediately despatched a boat to Campelar, for 
Mr. Bacon, whose advice was necessary to be 
taken in relation to her future employment on the 
coast. Mr. Bacon accordingly left Campelar on 
the 24th; and touching at the residence of 
George Caulker, the proprietor of the Plantian 
Islands, he thus describes his interview with this* 

* Mr. Bacon was unhappily obliged before his death r 
either to reverse, or greatly modify his charitable judgment 
of the piety of this individual. 



MEMOIR OF BACON. £59 

Africau chieftain. A considerable part of his 
wealth has been amassed by means of the inhu- 
man traffic in the persons of his countrymen. 

"On our arrival at the Plantains, about 
twelve at night, Caulker was in bed : he was 
awakened, and received us at the gate of his 
fortress. He had a white robe wrapped about 
him ; and wore a turban of figured cambrick. 
His reception of us was friendly. His house 
is covered with thatch in the native style ; but 
has, in the centre, one room finished in the 
European manner. He gave up to Lieut. String- 
ham and myself, his own bed-room, and afforded 
a comfortable accommodation to the boat-men. 
He has Jjhe air and manners of a Scottish chief- 
taiji. He was evidently suspicious of the mo- 
tives of our visit, and was far from approving 
our errand to the coast. He has a battery of 
five dismounted guns, a high wall on two sides 
of his inclosure, and ranges of houses on the 
other sides. He is a man of intelligence ; gen- 
teel in his address ; has many wives ; and pos- 
sesses considerable influence." 

Mr. Bacon arrived on board the Cyane in 
the harbour of Sierra Leone on the 26th. It 
was Sunday ; and he was obliged to pass the 
evening amidst the unseasonable festivity of a 
dining party, in which the principal officers of 
the English colony had been invited to join. 
The eflfect of this profanation, on his feelings, is 
noticed with emphasis in his journal. The next 



380 MEMOIR OP BACON. 

day, it was arranged, that the schooner Augusta 
should be manned from the Gyane, and the com- 
mand of her delivered to Midshipman Town- 
send ; while the ship proceeded to prosecute 
her cruise, and return to the United Btates. 

On the 28th, Messrs. Bacon, Townsend, 
and six men from the Gyane, according? y, left 
Sierra Leone, in an open boat ; and arrived at 
Campelar on the 30th. 

From this date to the 3d of April, the agents 
were occupied in superintending and assisting 
in the unlading of the Elizabeth, in the erection 
of store-houses for the goods, and providing for 
the accommodation and comfort of the people. 

The Island of Sherbro is separated from 
that part of the coast which bears the same nan- e, 
by a sound navigable for small vessels, and 
from one and a half to four leagues broad. 
Into this sound fall several rivers which admit 
of boat navigation from five to thirty miles from 
their mouth. This Island is about ten leagues 
in length, and is covered with a luxuriant vege- 
table growth : but it consists wholly of alluvial 
ground, and like the whole adjacent coast, rises 
but a few feet above the level of the sea. Cam- 
pelar is situated near the middle of the Island, 
on the east side : and the ground on which it 
stands, with much of the contiguous country, is 
during the rains, extensively inundated. In addi- 
tion to the manifest insalubrity of its situation, 
Lhe water is so strongly impregnated with for- 



MEMOIR OF BACON. 36l 

eign substances as to be rendered highly offen- 
sive to the taste. The agents had notwithstanding 
these forbidding circumstances, been inveigled 
.into an arrangement with the proprietor of the 
spot, by which the people were to remain upon 
it, while the negotiations for the lands were pro- 
ceeding, by the most positive assurances of its 
salubrity on the part of Kizzel, and a promise 
of effectual assistance in bringing the native 
chiefs to an early conference with the agents. 

The dominion of the whole Sherbro coun- 
try is distributed among a number of petty chiefs, 
who all acknowledge to their king, a subjection 
which is nearly nominal ; and possess an abso- 
lute right of government in their respective dis- 
tricts. A sort of paternal respect is shown by 
the people to these head-men ; while a great de- 
gree of personal freedom is enjoyed; and no 
important act of government, or judicial deci- 
sion, in which the former are generally interest- 
ed, takes place, without the concurrence of the 
elders of the tribe. 

The territory which had been designated by 
the former agents on the coast, and was the ob- 
ject of the approaching negotiation, commenced 
about thirty miles from Campelar, at the head 
of boat navigation on the Bagroo river. King 
Fara, who resided on the Island of Sher- 
bro, was the reputed proprietor of the tract; 
but was unable to cede it, without the consent 
and advice of king Sherbro and the chiefs. 



262 MEMOIR OF BACON* 

Mr. Bacon soon perceived in Kizzel, a dis- 
position for which he was not able satisfactorily 
to account, to procrastinate the general council, 
which he had promised his aid to obtain: and, . 
on the 3d of April, he ascended a small river 
about ten miles from the sound, in order to visit 
the chief, Kara, at his own residence. Of his 
reception by Fara, and the conference which 
ensued, he gives the following relation : 

" We were received, and seated in the f pala- 
ver or council house, on native mats. The king 
and head-men of his tribe, were arranged on 
the opposite side; and after our presents had 
been produced and accepted, the ' palaver' began. 
" I stated through Mr. Kizzel, the objects of our 
visit to Africa and the improvement and benefits 
likely to accrue to the native tribes, from our re- 
ligion, agriculture, and the mechanic arts. He 
listened to my words; said they were all true; 
and professed to be highly gratified. He said he 
owned the land where we wanted to sit down ; 
and would sell it : but king Sherbro must first 
be consulted as he was the king of the whole 
country. He promised to come in two days, to 
Campelar and give me further information," "I 
am more and more pleased with the Sherbro 
people. They are kind and attentive to our 
wants* This country is capable of becoming a 
coutiuued garden. My health is excellent : I 
know not that it was ever better." 



\UKMOIR OF BACON. 363 

Anxious to secure the lands with the least 
possible delay, and apprehensive that the pro- 
fessions of Kizzel oudit not to be confided in, 

CD 7 

Mr. Bacon proceeded on the next day, to the 
principal towg of Somano, the chief of Bendou, 
situated on the left of the sound, about twenty 
miles south of Gainpelar. Professions of good 
will, and a promise of concurring in any 
grant of lands which should be agreed up- 
on in a council of the chiefs, were obtained 
from this chief without difficulty ; but Mr. Bacon 
was able to obtain no assurance of an early 
6 palaver/ 

" After our interview With the chiefs," he 
continues, "we walked several miles into the 
country. The head-man, Tasso, was our guide, 
who took good care to tell us under what trees 
the ' greegres' were ; and that if we went 
where they were, we should get a variety of 
distempers. He showed us a collection of na- 
tive medicines, and explained their uses." " I 
never saw a country of equal fertility. The 
most luxuriant grow 7 th of cotton trees, currant 
trees, lime and orange trees, and a variety of 
timber trees and shrubbery ; together with bana- 
nas, plantains, eassadas, yams, ground-nuts, 
sweet-potatoes, and acres covered with pine- 
apple plants, lined our walks for miles. Tasso 
was very friendly 9 — introduced us to his wife ; 
lamented that he had no palm wine for me ; and 
promised to visit Oampelar." # On my journey 



264- MEMOIR OF BACON, 

down, we stopped at Mrs. Andersons, on York 
Island, and found the largest oranges I ever saw. 
I got one that measured fifteen inches in circum- 
ference.^ " 1 could not fail to admire the beau- 
tiful healthy children in numerous groups, 
wherever we go. King Fara said yesterday, 
lie would come if God pleases; — a mode of 
speech worthy of a christian. " 

On Mr. Bacon's return from this excursion* 
he was much afflicted to find that several of the 
people at tJampelar, had, during the day, ex- 
hibited unequivocal symptoms of a violent at- 
tack of fever. These consisted of pains in the 
head, back, and limbs, attended with inflamma- 
tion of the eyes, lassitude, and depression of 
spirits. On the next day, the number of sick 
amounted to fifteen. The trans-shipment and 
landing of the Elizabeth's freight was not yet 
completed, and fully occupied the other agents; 
while Mr. Bacon was employed in providing 
shelter for the goods and people, ashore. The 
latter began to manifest the utmost impatience 
to remove from Campelar, on account both of 
the badness of the water, and the apprehended 
insalubrity of the situation. 

The agents had found no leisure since then 
arrival at Campelar, to organise the different de- 
partments of the service ; and by assigning to 
the people their respective employments and du- 
ties, to avail themselves sufficiently of their aid 
in sustaining the burden of labour which pressed 



MEMOIR OF BACON. 265 

upon their own shoulders. The consequence was, 
that their strength was exhausted with incessant 
bodily exertion, and imprudent exposure to the 
direct rays of a vertical sun, through the day, and 
the damps of pestilential exhalations at night. 
Many of the black people at the same time, would 
scarcely give themselves the trouble properly to 
prepare their own food ; by their indolence man- 
ifestly inviting disease, and laying open the 
system to the worst effects of the malignant pro- 
perties of the water and climate. But there 
were moral evils scarcely less formidable, daily 
becoming more apparent in consequence of the 
general idleness. It afforded to the seeds of 
dissatisfaction which had never been entirely 
eradicated from their minds, a prolific growth* 
Scarcely a circumstance of their lot, but admin- 
istered some pretext of complaint against the 
agents. The following picture of the distressing 
scene which was now presented, is thus sketched 
by Mr. Bacon, on the 6th of April : " We have 
now twenty- one sick of a fever. We try the 
country practice of bathing, and find it succesful 
in some cases. We have not tried it sufficiently, 
fully to attest its efficacy. The schooner is now 
absent for the remainder of the freight ; and Dr. 
Crozer is with her. Mr. Bankson is sick ; — I 
suppose on board the vessel. I have heard the 
complaints of the people this day, because there 
is no good water to be had on the Island, — be- 
cause they were brought to this place, — because 

34 



266 MEMOIR OF BACON. 

I did not take possession of the land by force,— 
because the people are visited with sickness,— 
because there is not fresh meat, sugar, molas- 
ses, flour and other luxuries to be distributed 
to them, — because I have not shoes and clothing 
for them,— because I cannot give them better to- 
bacco, — because the • palaver' is not over, — be- 
cause 1 take the best measures I can, to bring it 
to a conclusion, — because the houses are not 
better, — and because they have meat and bread 
to eat. They complain of every thing they 
have ; and are clamorous for every thing they 
have not. We erected one additional house, to- 
day for our people ; and have two store-houses 
already finished, in which our provisions and 
goods are tolerably secure." 

" We have suffered much from the depreda- 
tions of our own people ! Even our high-toned 
professors have been repeatedly detected in 
petty thefts, falsehood, and mischiefs of the most 
disgraceful nature. I am pained to the heart 
with these indications of gross hypocrisy. — It i* 
a dark picture : but its shades are truth." 

On the evening of the 7th, the number of sick 
had increased to twenty-five. What added to 
the distress was, the absence of Mr. Crozer, who 
was almost the only individual attached to the 
service capable of prescribing and preparing the 
necessary medicines with a scientific knowledge 
of their uses. Mr. Bacon gave bis own person- 
al attendance to the sick : and administered wi(l f 



MEMOIR OF BACON. 26? 

his own band, the best remedies which he could 
devise. In these offices, lie was employed dur- 
ing the day, and through a great part of the 
night* On the same day he preached to those 
in health, preparatory to the communion ; and 
addressed the natives through Kizzel. 

April 8th, was a day of aggravated distress. 
The schooner returned, bringing back Messrs. 
Bankson, Crozer, and Townsend, all severely 
ill ; as were also two of the schooner's crew. 
Five more on shore, were added to the number 
of the sick, reported the day before; — makingin 
all, thirty-five. Of these much the greater part 
were adult persons. The most useful of the colo- 
nists were, nearly to an individual, in the number. 
Twenty-five of the sick exhibited symptoms of 
a dangerous character; and all, appeared to be 
hourly getting worse. Almost the whole care of 
the sick, as w r ell as of those in health, now de- 
volved on this agent ! fi I passed the day," he 
writes, u in visiting the sick, inquiring into their 
wants, and administering medicines. Wherever 
I move, I meet with little besides groans, and 
tears. The fever is bilious; and in many 
cases, attended with delirium. Among the cau- 
ses of the sickness, I reckon the following, as 
the principal. A too free use of the country 
fruits ; — the neglect of personal cleanliness ; — 
alternate exposure to the sun, and dampness 
of the night ; — the want of flooring to the huts ; — 
constitutions not seasoned to the climate ; and 



S68 MEMOIR OF BACU2S. 

in the case of those employed about the schoo- 
ner, excessive fatigue, and anxiety of mind, and 
remaining for hours in the water, and in wet 
clothes, while landing the goods. Many of the 
sick obstinately refuse to take medicines ; some 
declaring, they will sooner die than submit to 
do it." 

To a person placed in MrBacon ? s circumstau 
ces, at this period, and actuated by his disinter 
ested and benevolent spirit, it is not to be sup. 
posed, that a prudential regard for his own 
health would occur with sufficient force, to oc^ 
casion any relaxations in his attentions to others. 
The following enumeration of duties which 
he undertook at this time daily to perform, 
shows, but too clearly, that he imposed upon 
himself, a task to which human strength is utter- 
ly unequal. Some of the privations and labours 
to which he submitted, manifestly appear to 
have been imprudent and unnecessary. But 
it would be improper too severely to censure in 
him a fault which few besides would be liable to 
commit. " Who can describe the burden under 
which I am obliged to struggle, in feeding this 
people, — enduring their complaints, — listening 
to their tales of trouble, — inquiring into their 
sufferings, — ad ministering medicine, — labouring 
with my own hands in building houses for 
them, — and toiling at the oar, and handling 
casks, in unloading the vessel and landing the 
goods !— In addition to all this, I have the spiri 



MEMOIR OF LACON. ;>6<j 

tual concerns of the whole company to look af 
ten I go without stockings, entirely, — often with 
out shoes ; — scarcely wear a hat, and am gener- 
ally without a coat ;« — I am up early, and not in 
bed until ten, or eleven o'clock. I eat little, and 
seldom use any other refreshments except hard 
ship-bread, salt meat and water." " I labour 
more, — am more exposed to heat, and wet, and 
damp, and hunger, and thirst, than any one; 
and yet, blessed be God, I continue in health." 
" In addition to all this, I have the weight of the 
whole interest on my mind : — all the care, — all 
the responsibility, — all the anxiety. But God 
be praised, I have peace within." « There are 
eight entire families sick; amongst whom there 
is not one able to dress his own food, or wait 
upon a child. Oh God who can help, but 
thou?" 

Mr. Bacon found time to annex to this af- 
fecting recital of his personal anxieties, and the 
common sufferings, the following postscript. ■" Is 
it asked, do I yet say * colonize Africa ?' I reply, 
yes. He that has seen ninety native Africans 
landed together in America, atjd remarked the 
effects of the change of climate through the 
first year, has seen them as sickly as these. 
Every sudden and unnatural transition pro- 
duces illness. The surprising fertility of the 
African soil, the mildness of the climate, during 
a great part of the year, the numerous commer- 
cial advantages, the stores of fish, and herds of 



g/0 MEMOIR OF BACON. 

animals, to be found here, invite her scattered 
children home. — As regards myself, I counted 
the cost of engaging in this service before I left 
America. I came to these shores to die ; and 
any thing better than death is better than I ex- 
pect." 

The 9th of April was Sunday. " At the 
very houiy ' he continues, " I have been accus- 
tomed to listen to, and aid in the praises of God, 
I am hearkening to the groans, and mingling my 
sighs with thos« of the sick and afflicted. Hav- 
ing preached a preparatory sermon on Thursday 
evening, I to-day administered the holy sacra- 
ment of the Lord's supper to those of the Epis- 
copal church, and six of the Methodist : and 
we had a sweet season." 

His colleague, Mr. Bankson, and several of 
the people, were delirious through the day : none 
appear to have passed the crisis of their disor- 
der; and a few new cases occurred. Those 
who returned sick in the schooner, had not been 
removed on shore ; and it was determined, at 
Mr. Crozer's and Mr. Townsend's request, to 
send her to Sierra Leone, with the sick on 
board, for medical assistance ; — the three effec- 
tive seameu, with what attention Mr. Townsend 
could bestow, undertaking to navigate her. But 
the wind standing for two days, in an unfavour- 
able quarter, it became at that time impracticable 
to move her. 



MEMOIR OF 15 AGON. 271 

On the 10th, the commencement of the wet 
season was indicated by two or three violent 
gusts of thunder and wind, succeeded by tran- 
sient showers of rain. 

The people discovered the utmost impatience 
to be removed from Campelar, and even in- 
timated in a written memorial which they pre- 
sented, an intention to take the direction of their 
affairs into their own hands. They were assem- 
bled and remonstrated with ; after which, their 
groundless agitation subsided, and their disor- 
derly purpose was abandoned. 

It had now become apparent, that their faith- 
less host, Kizzel, had employed a secret influ- 
ence to produce and aggravate the disaffection of 
the people. Mr. Bacon determined to rely no 
longer on his mediation, or agency, in conduct- 
ing the negotiations ; and proceeded on the 11th 
to visit Kong Kouber, a prince and son of king 
Sherbro, at his own town, on the Bagroo. The 
interview was productive of no immediate re- 
sults ; but discovered a disposition in the prince 
to admit of no unnecessary delay in bringing 
forward the general * palaver. 5 Mr. Bacon re- 
turned on the 12th, and found the sickness not 
in the least abated. Mr. Crozer committed his 
agency in form, to the Rev. Daniel Coker ; and 
awaited the closing scene of life, with composure. 

The next day one of the sick on shore died : 
and new cases occurred. Mr. Townsend came 
on deck, during the preceding night in a fit of 



2J7# MEMOIII OF BACON 

delirium, and fell overboard. He was with dif- 
ficulty rescued ; but had the violence of his 
fever increased by the accident. At night, Mr. 
Bacon states : " There are only six or eight of 
the people in health — and the sick cannot be 
properly taken care of. I am still well, and en- 
joy the supreme protection and favour of God." 

On the 14th, occurred anotber^death. Mr. 
Bacon found time to add ; " We have been in 
hourly expectation of Mr. Crozer's death. God 
be praised, I am yet well : but am continually 
engaged, — continually. Every duty — adminis- 
tering medicine, nursing the sick, praying over 
them, burying the dead, serving out provisions, 
and hearing complaints — all — all, still fall, upon 
me. But God helps me." 

" April 15th. Our whole number of sick is 
nearly forty. Mr. Crozer died, about one o'clock 
on board the Augusta. I was engaged in prayer 
by his side when he expired. This is a season 
of grief, indeed. He said a few days ago, that 
' Jesus was precious to him, but less so than he 
could wish/ These are dark seasons. Mr. 
Townsend's case is hopeless. Others are very 
low. Grace alone, could enable me to bear up 
under afflictions like these. O God, send us thy 
help." 

The lGth, was marked by the death of Mid- 
shipman John S. Townsend, and one of the sick 
on shore. The remains of Messrs. Crozer and 
Townsend, were carried to the grave by the 



MEMOIR OF B\CON. #73 

American seamen of the Augusta, and buried 
with the honours of war. Mr. JBankson was 
supposed to be convalescent, and at twelve 
o'clock, removed on shore. Mr. Doughen, a 
young gentleman who went out under Mr. Ba- 
con's patronage; and who had hitherto retained 
his health, became ill : and he was himself con- 
siderably indisposed, at night. 

Under the date of the succeeding day, Mr* 
Bacon inserts the following memorandum. "I 
was yesterday indisposed ; and am to-day mote 
so. I have taken an emetic, and otherwise pre- 
pared for the illness which seems to be approach, 
ing." 

While confined to his room he was able to 
adjust the current accounts of the expedition, 
with the assistance of an amanuensis; and en- 
ter in the books an imperfect copy, with his own 
hand. 

The following are the last notes which he 
was able to write. They are feebly traced with 
a pencil in characters which are barely legible : 

" April l&th. The wife of Augustin died 
last night, and was buried to-day. Mr. Coker 
and Kizzel started to day, for Yonie, with the 
goods appropriated for carrying on the ' palaver/ 
in order to hasten it" # # # " I last night, con- 
tracted a slight cold, — have used the warm bath, 
md some gentle medicines; and feel a little 

flieved. I have been careful not to weaken 
v stomach and digestive organs, by too copious 
35 



374 MEMOIR OF BACON. 

draughts, especially of water; — as that indul- 
gence carried off Mr. Crozer, Townsend, and 
others." * * * * 

" April 20th. Still sick." * * * * 
«•;*;** gist. The same." * * * * 
« * * * 22(1. * * same." * * * * 
The sufferings of the peop\e were now ar- 
rived at that extreme point which hardly admits 
of being exceeded. Mr. Dougheu was confin- 
ed to his couch : Mr. Bankson, although recov- 
ering, was still incapable even of administering 
to his own personal wants. The only three 
persons sufficiently intelligent to take the pro- 
per oversight of the affairs of the people, su- 
perintend the administration of medicines, and 
direct to such means as were requisite to their 
comfort and recovery, were necessarily sent to 
Yonie, to meet the native kings who had agreed 
to assemble at that place. The anxiety which 
this state of things created in Mr. Bacon's mind 
could not fail greatly to enhance his sufferings, 
and accelerate the crisis of his disorder. He 
distinctly expressed more concern on account of 
the sufferings of the people, and the darkening 
prospects of the enterprise, than on account of 
his own illness. In contemplating his own 
death, he saw little, except a bright and bound- 
less expanse of glory piercing with its light the 
gloom which hung over the dying scene. But 
bis heart was wrung with the anticipation of the 
event, as it would affect the welfare of the 



MEMOIR OF BACON. 275 

colonists, and the success of the expedition. 
On this theme he had vented his feelings in the 
most pathetic language. But even in this hea- 
viest, and doubtless his last trial, he found re- 
lief by a vigorous effort of faith in the mercy of 
God : and by ultimately confiding in the wisdom 
and righteousness of all his purposes. The last 
expression of the pungent sensations which 
arose out of this survey of a prospect so dark 
and distressing, recorded by his pen, is accom- 
panied with the petition, manifestly dictated by 
the fervent wishes of his heart, — " Thy will be 
done/' 

From the 22d, to the 28th of April, there 
was no intelligent friend to observe the progress 
of his symptoms, or administer the medicines 
and comforts which their varying characteristics 
demanded. He had consigned himself to the 
hands of his God ; and waited submissively, the 
result of his afflictive dispensation. 

To be obliged to censure, where it would be a 
pleasure to commend, is painful : and to accuse of 
neglecting the ordinary offices of humanity, those 
who have deserved and possessed our gratitude, 
is doubly wounding to the heart. Our people have, 
both before and subsequently to this date, received 
favours from individuals, and the government of 
Sierra Leone, which have called forth public 
expressions of gratitude. But why, at the period 
of these occurrences, and for several weeks af- 
terwards, was no medical aid tendered, — why, 



%7& MEMOIR OF BACON, 

when urgently solicited, was it denied, to our 
sick and dying people, by their English neigh- 
bours ? Sierra Leone was at that time, healthy : 
and it was a matter of notoriety, that the only 
medical gentleman attached to the American ex- 
pedition, had died at an early period of the sick- 
ness. On the 28th, a snjall vessel from Freetown 
anchored in sight of Campelar. A barge was 
despatched from her with two individuals, who 
proved to be servants of the colonial govern- 
ment of Sierra Leone ; and one of them, an act- 
ing physician. They were welcomed with joy. 
But after announcing, as the object of their visit, 
some trivial, and obviously incredible matter of 
trade, — making a leisurely survey of the calami- 
tous circumstances of the people, and displaying 
the utmost indifference to their sufferings, they 
returned on the same evening, to their vessel. 
The intreaties of those in health, seconded by 
the tears, and cries of the sick and dying, had 
been addressed to them in vain, for medical at- 
tendance — and even for advice, as to the mode 
of treatment proper for the disease. Both were 
refused. After much intreaty, they reluctantly 
consented to receive Mr. Bacon into their schoo- 
ner, and convey him the next day, to Sierra 
Leone ; and for that purpose promised to keep 
then* vessel in its station, until nine o'clock, on 
the following morning, when it was agreed, that 
he should be sent on board, in his own boat. 
Accordingly, on the morning ef the 29th, he 



MEMOIR OF BACON. 277 

was conveyed in a very debilitated state, from 
Campelar, and arrived at the anchorage ground, 
before the hour appointed for the sailing of the 
schooner. But on the approach of the boat, the 
vessel drew up her anchor, and set sail for Sierra 
Leone ! Mr. Bacon ordered the men at the oars 
to overtake her ; and the lightness of the wind, 
for a season, favoured the effort. A press of 
sail was, however, set; and though followed at 
a moderate distance for several hours, the vessel 
at length ran so far ahead as to set the exertions 
of the boat-men at defiance.* It was now noon. 
Mr. Bacon had been exposed to the direct rays 
of the sun, for six hours, with no better covering 
than a silk umbrella ; nor was it possible to regain 
a better shelter, before night. He ordered the 
men to direct their course towards the Plan- 
tain Islands; where the boat arrived in the 
evening of the same day. After resting through 
the night, Mr. Bacon was carried aboard the 
boat, early in the morning of the 30th, and 
passed the whole of another day in the same ex- 
posed condition as he had done the preceding. 
His fever had now attained a degree of violence 
which almost deprived him of the power of 
speech ; and rendered him apparently insensible 
to passing occurrences. On the evening of this 
day he was landed at the recent English settle- 
ment on Cape Shilling ; and very hospitably re- 

<* See Appendix, Note VIII. 



37S MEMOIR OF BACON. 

ceived by Captain William Handle, the super- 
intendant of the station. Every requisite atten- 
tion was bestowed upon him by that gentleman, 
and his family ; and his mind appeared soothed 
by the kindness which was evinced. But reme- 
dies came too late to do him good. 

During the next day, he was able to recline 
for short intervals on a sofa; and to take a small 
part in the conversation. But his disorder was 
hastening rapidly, to a fatal termination. He 
perceived it, and expressed in the intervals of 
his sensibility, his acquiescence in the sovereign 
pleasure of God. The cause in which he had em- 
barked retained a strong interest in his affections, 
to the last. In his last conversation, he feebly 
asked, " Dear Brother Handle, do you not think 

we have happiness reserved that w r ill- ?" 

As the interrogatory was unfinished, the gentle- 
man to whom it was addressed, did not immedi- 
ately reply : when, Mr. Bacon continued, "What 
do you say to my question ?" A hope was then 
expressed, that the Saviour would reserve for 
both, a happiness which should abundantly com- 
pensate their present sufferings. He replied, 
and they were some of his last words, " Ah ! 
that is all I want." 

This last effort of reason and speech, took 
place about eleven o'clock, on the night of the 
1st of May. The languid current of life ebbed 
gradually away, until half past four, on the fol- 
lowing morning ; when he expired. His remains 



MEMOIR OF BACON. &/9 

were interred on the same day, in the burial 
ground attached to the church in the settlement : 
and though deposited by the hands of strangers, 
on a foreign and pagan shore, they rest under 
the sure protectiorf of the christian's Saviour, 
and in " the certain hope of a glorious resurrec- 
tion."* 

In his person-, Mr. Bacon was tall; the struc- 
ture of his frame was masculine, and rather indica- 
tive of strength, than characterised by symmetry 
of proportion. His features were strongly mark- 
ed ; and the expression of his countenance blend- 
ed an interesting pensiveness with the lineaments 
of an intelligent and vigorous mind. His attach- 
ments were ardent; his passions quick and vio- 
lent; and his friendships aflFectionate and perma- 
nent. He was impatient of opposition, rapid in 
his movements, and determined in his purposes. 
Inflexible integrity, unbounded generosity, and a 
sincerity incapable of disguise, run through the 
entire texture of his character. 

His learning was various : and his taste clas- 
sical : but the first was not profound ; nor the 
last exact. His legal acquirements were all of the 
useful kind ; his standing at the bar respectable i 
and his professional reputation increasing. 

By regeneration, every constitutional excel- 
lence was heightened, and a foundation laid for 
those pre-eminent spiritual attainments, in which 

f See Appendix, Note IX, 



280 MEMOIR OF BACON. 

he had few equals, — perhaps no superiors. Hk 
zeal has been seen to be ardent ; his devotion 
entire ; his hopes, elevated to sublimity ; and 
his faith invincible. The love and fear of God 
tempered together in just proportions, formed the 
prevalent feeling of his heart ; his very thoughts 
were prayer ; his habit of obedience to the di- 
vine laws, prompt and unhesitating; and his 
'love of the christian brother-hood, unfeigned/ 
The mystery of ' God manifest in the flesh/ and 
the character, work and offices of the Redeemer, 
formed the theme of his untiring admiration, his 
incessant rejoicing, his increasing gratitude, and 
his highest praise. In the service of such a Mas- 
ter, enforced by such motives, his talents, health, 
and life, were regarded as infinitely too cheap an 
offering. To Him, they were all deliberately 
consecrated : for Him, they were all cheerfully 
resigned. And his memory shall be blessed. 
The American church will long cherish it with 
affection : and it shall hereafter freshen in the 
hearts of millions in another hemisphere, when 
the work in which he fell shall have its consum- 
mation, in the civilization of Africa, the re- 
turn of all her exiles, and the subjection of a 
countless population to the dominion of Christ 



APPENDIX. 



NOTE I. 

THE denomination of " Congregationalist," in refer- 
ence to the religious societies of New England, is used in 
an appropriate, and not according to the original, sense of 
the term. In strict phraseology, several sects of Baptists 
arid other Christians, in those, and the other states, are con- 
gregationalists, but known by different names. The term 
-' Congregationalist" in its common use, designates the ori- 
ginal and prevalent denomination, who adopt essentially, 
the same system of faith, and have ever been in christian 
fellowship, with the Presbyterians ; from whom they differ 
only in their system of ecclesiastical government and dis- 
cipline. The government and affairs of the church are 
administered by the whole congregation of communicants ; 
of which each constitutes a separate and independent ec- 
clesiastical body, which neither admits, nor exercises the 
controul of any other. This order sometimes, although 
improperly, are denominated Presbyterians. 

NOTE II. 

The direct testimony of Mr. Bacon to the general ex- 
cellence of the New England character, cannot be withheld 
without disappointing an intention which he seems to have 
entertained, of publishing at some future period, a graphi- 
cal illustration of the habits, morals, and religion of the 
people ; with a view to the extermination of certain pre- 
judices w r hich so greatly detract from their just estimation 
in other sections of the country. The strongest of these 
prejudices, he correctly supposed, have their origin in ig- 
norance. In the outline of these sketches, which Mr. Ba- 
con prepared about two years previous to his death, the 
following very just observations occur. "In New Eng- 
land, the laws of the several states are generally better ex- 
36 



282 APPENDIX. 

ecuted than in the middle and Southern states. Religion 
is much more generally attended to. Education is foster- 
ed, and good morals protected. But there is in the lower 
classes of the people, a species of low cunning and intrigue, 
which is sometimes rendered dangerous amongst a less 
suspicious and more ignorant people. It is this class of 
people who, finding their own laws too strict for them, ge» 
nerally remove to a distant part of the country, where 
their arts and deceptions find a better opportunity for ac- 
tion. Go amongst the people of that country, you will 
find them hospitable, moral, religious. Industry and hard 
labour, characterise the most of them. If it is asked what 
are the distinguishing, traits of the New England character, 
it might be said, they are, enterprise, perseverance, shrewd- 
ness, industry and economy. Upon this subject much might 
be said. The character of these people is not understood." 

NOTE III. 

In an imperfect sketch of the present state of New 
England, which Mr. Bacon drew up a few years only before 
his death, he exercises on this subject, an unreasonable se- 
verity of reflection, which was unusual for him at that time 
to indulge on any other, and which can be best vindicated by 
attributing it in part, to the effects of early prejudice. The 
following remarks are extracted from these papers : "As 
to the religion of the New England states, the " Standing 
order" not unfrequently exercise some degree of persecu- 
tion. All offices are attempted to be holden by them, and 
having the law on their side, they make all contribute to 
their worship, who do not produce written testimony that 
they contribute to some other mode. Every person is obli- 
ged to go to church once in three months, under a penalty ; 
and sabbath -breaking is considered as a crime of no small 
magnitude. Yet too much hypocrisy may sometimes be 
seen under the demure garb and face of a congregationalist 
as well as others. It is predicted that the unnatural union 
of church and state will take place in those states, if not 



APPENDIX. 283 

guarded against. ' The standing order' will probably grow 
more and more arrogant and powerful, if the laws in their 
favour be not relaxed. One great advantage which they 
possess is, that ' power and authority 5 is on their side." 

The allusion contained in the foregoing extract, to the 
public sentiment on the violation of the Sabbath, must not 
be understood as an expression of any other feeling in Mr. 
Bacon, than that of approbation. Of the crime of violating 
the Sabbath, no person was more sensible, or felt a deeper 
abhorrence than himself. It may be further remarked, and 
probably from a better knowledge of the actual tendency 
of the congregational system in New England at the pre- 
sent time, than Mr. Bacon possessed in 1817, that whatever 
consequences might be dreaded from the legal patronage 
enjoyed by that body, continuing in a state of religious lan- 
guor, and general conformity to the world, the recent very- 
extensive revival of true religion amongst them, has visibly 
arrested the aspiring tendencies of the system, and directed 
the ambition of a great portion of their members in the pur- 
suit of far sublimer, and more appropriate objects. 

NOTE IV. 

Mr. Bacon was fully sensible of the imperfection of all 
his poetical productions. Being written for his own amuse- 
ment, or the gratification of a few of his particular friends, 
they ought not to be too readily subjected to the eye of 
public criticism. The piece which follows, is taken without 
much attention to the selection, from those which have fallen 
into the hands of the writer ; and offered as a fair specimen, 
(and one must suffice) of their general character. Its faults 
and beauties are alike apparent. 

THE GHOST OF A SACHEM. 

The war-song arose on the night's drowsy pinions, 
It rose from the site, where his wigwam once stood : 

On the banks of the Mohawk, his sire's wild dominions, 
It roll'd in shrill echoes, — the song of the wood. 



£84 APPENDIX. 

The sky-towering wilds of the untrodden mountains, 
Reporting the full notes, by distance made mild; 

The Mohawk's rude billows, in haste from their fountains, 
In consonance echoed, " the prince of the wild!" 

By the flash of the far distant fire's dying embers, 
I saw the red chieftain arise from the earth ; 

He reviewed each old haunt ; for the spirit remembers 
Each scene, that to joy or to sorrow gave birth. 

His shoulders o'erspread with his battle-worn blanket, 
His pnsigns of mildness all hung by his side; 

His wounds weeping blood, while his native earth drank it: 
For the "ghost of the sachem" appeared, as he died. 

"How oft," he exclaimed, "have my visits nocturnal 
Been made to this spot, where my kindred all fell ? 

And let me still wander, "great spirit," supernal ! 
And still let the war-note on midnight's ear swell. 



•©" 



" My old oaks, that stood like my tribe, long unshaken, 
Brav'd the tempest, and storm, and th« elements' roar; 

My warriors, — my tribe — the destroyer has taken ; 
The children of nature shall reign here no more. 

" The time-moulder'd stumps of my forests now shew me, 
They're pilfered, some towering wigwam to rear, 

No more my own lands, as their sachem, shall know me ; 
Their vales are all furrowed — their groves are not here. 

"The buffalo, hence, with his bulky distention, 
The elk and the deer from the river banks hie ; 

The mammoths, that bellow'd in dreadful convention, 
No more shall here battle with powers of the sky ! 

" The chase, that among yonder hill-tops resounded ; 
That fired the young red-man with enterprise high, 

The yell, that exults, when the fleet deer is wounded, 
No longer on wind or on breeze passes by. 

" The council-fire's blaze, where I oft quell'd commotion, 
No longer illumines the ^loom of the night ; 

No longer arises the fire of devotion ; 
No longer the war-dance leads on to the fight ; 

"How oft have I buried the blood-thirsty hatchet ! 
For the white man besought, and the sachem was brave ! 

How oft did his treachery tempt me to snatch it ; 
And not e'en his wife or his little ones, save ! 



APPENDIX. 285 

" In an hour of repose the fell rifle was levePd ; 
It murder'd my boys, and my girls, and my wife ! 

Tne Mohawk received them; their straight hair dishevel'd: 
It next sought their chief, and robb'd him too of life ! 

" But the day-star approaches the darkness to banish ; 
1 haste to the ' land of my fathers' in rest ; 

The breezy dawn comes, and each spirit must vanish ; 
The grave is my home, and the darkness my guest" 

NOTE V, 

At this season Mrs. Bacon had been for some time ab- 
sent from Washington on a visit to her friends in Penn- 
sylvania. Her approaching confinement was anticipated 
by her husband with the utmost solicitude. His feelings 
appear to have consisted of a singular mixture of social 
and religious affection, excited to an uncommon degree, and 
flowing forth indifferently towards all his friends. He 
composed, and constantly repeated, for a course of weeks, 
the following prayer, from which a few extracts are here 
inserted, as characteristic of the state of his mind at the 
time. 

" Almighty and merciful God, wilt thou suffer a repen- 
tant sinner to throw himself at thy foot-stool at this time 
and implore thy pardoning mercy, — thy forgiving kindness. 
Oh, Father in Heaven, let me humbly thank thee for the 
blessings thou hast vouchsafed me for the day past and for 
all thy kindness thus far in life. Let me more especially 
pour out my soul before thee in gratitude, thankfulness and 
praise, for affording us the way of grace and the hopes of 
salvation through a Redeemer. Let me never forget to 
thank thee for this only source of happiness, revealed to us 
in thy holy word. God, accept my thanks for thy past 
blessings on my wife and on our union : for the length of 
days and measure of health and comfort granted to my 
aged father, and for thy goodness and mercy to all my bro- 
thers and sisters and their several families. Forgive, God, 
I humbly beseech thee, all our sins. Dispose and enable 
us to live a righteous and Godly life ; to repent of our sins 



286 



APPENDIX. 



and thus make ourselves worthy of thy forgiving grace. 
Bless my father with health and strength ; and may he be 
at last prepared for, and receive thy pardoning grace. May 
rny days be spent in doing good, and serving thee. May the 
offspring of our union be endowed with the senses and affec- 
tions of human nature, capable of rendering it a blessing to 
its parents ; and may it be so educated as to serve thee in 
sincerity and truth, and at last be fitted for immortal life. 
Heavenly Father, teach me how io pray and what to pray 
for. Not my will, Lord, but thine be done ; for thou hast 
^') taught us to pray, * Our father, &c.' " 

NOTE VI. 

An instance fully illustrative of the influence which sen- 
sible impressions assisted by the imagination, could exert on 
Mr. Bacon's judgment, while oppressed with bodily indispo- 
sition, occurs in his journal. Few will be disposed to resort 
to the supposition of a directly supernatural agency in or- 
der to account for the singular sensation ; nor is it consi- 
dered necessary. That his mind was at the time in a most 
happy and eievatcd frame of devotion, and that the effect 
of the impression was entirely salutary ; there can be little 
doubt. Perhaps the pious reader may recollect sensations 
of his own mind of a similar kind, which, had they been as- 
sisted by a livelier imagination and a higher state of nervous 
excitability, might have had for a short time, the like impo- 
sing effect on his judgment. 

"January 2d. This day my temporal business was less 
urgent, and I had leisure to rest; but was exercised with 
anxiety about the trying business of the approaching week. 
I was a few moments at the house of two of my neighbours : 
and was requested to pray in both. My desires for more grace 
were strong and fervent. On returning to my lodgings, sud- 
denly a bright light appeared to illuminate the whole room. 
I immediately rose up and looked about with surprise, but 
not with fear. I praised the Lord, and was happy — but 
remained for some time in a happy surprise: when it oc- 



APPENDIX. 

curred to me that I had lost my eye-sight, or that some ma- 
terial change had taken place in the organs of Vision. J 
went out to ascertain whether I could discern objects 
by moonlight ; as the night was a bright one. I found on tri- 
al, that mv eyes were as usual. I then returned, and examin- 
ed my stove ; but not a spark of fire was to be found in it 
No natural objects about me were rendered visible by it. 
My shutter and door were closed, and the light of the moon 
could not enter. Still the glorious vision continued; un- 
til at length, my doubts prevailed, and I lost it. I still re- 
gard it as a dispensation fraught with love to my soul ; 
and often sigh, 'My God repeat that heavenly hour, that 
vision so divine.' " 

NOTE VII. 

The following is an abstract of the document promul* 
gated on this occasion ; which is given as illustrative of the 
equitable principle on which the society intend to act in the 
distribution of lands to African settlers^ 

Every married man arriving or marrying in the colony 
within one year from its commencement, to receive twenty- 
five acres for himself, twenty-four for his wife, and ten for 
each child, as near the town as convenient: and every fami- 
ly is entitled to a lot in town. 

Every single man to receive thirty acres in the country, 
and a lot in town. 

Minors, and females not included in the former classes, 
to be entitled each, to twenty-five acres of land, without 
the town. 

Labourers and machanics, as a motive to industry and 
good conduct, to receive at the discretion of the agents, 
each ten acres in addition to the allotment above specified. 

The agents only are authorised to buy or negotiate with 
the natives for land. 

The colonists in order to hold their lands and lots, must 
reside in the colony and cultivate them. 

Grants forfeitable bv misconduct 



§88 \ppj;nd;x 8 

NOTE VIII. 
It is not insinuated that the government of Sierra Le- 
one positively interfered in preventing the extension of me* 
dical assistance to the colonists in Sherbro. But the utter 
indifference which even the officers of that colony seem to 
have evinced, to the unparallelled sufferings of the American 
people, demands an explanation. It is not pretended that 
any other obligation, than that which arises from the profes- 
sion of a common Christianity, and the possession of a com- 
mon nature, rested on them to afford relief to their afflicted fel- 
low beings in this case- Let the cruel perfidy of the two un- 
principled individuals referred to in the memoir, rest with 
themselves : the cause of humanity demands of the gentle 
men attached to the board of direction of the English govern- 
ment at Sierra Leone, a vindication from what appearsto have 
been a conduct indirect violation of its most sacred laws. 

Perhaps it is cine to the justice of Heaven to state, that 
one of the two English visitants to Campelar on the 28th, 
met, shortly after his return, a sudden and violent death : 
and the other is believed to be now undergoing an infamous 
punishment for felony. 

The clergymen and missionaries of Sierra Leone, are 
from their circumstances and duties, to be entirely excepted 
from any part ot the foregoing censure. 

NOTE IX. 

Mr. Bankson continued to amend, for a few days, when 
he was subjected to a fatal relapse, which carried him off on 
the ISth of May. Mr. Doughen recovered, and returned 
to the United States. The whole crew of the Augusta and 
about twenty of the black people, died. The remainder in 
a few weeks regained their health; of whom the greatest 
number continued under the care of the Rev. Daniel Co* 
ker in Sierra Leone, until the month of March, 1821, 
when new agents arrived with supplies, and a reinforcement 
of colonists, from the United States. 



X)«6$* 






.A <tf.» ' • • • .i w ■*• A> o » • , • 



































<Mk- \/ •'-Jtar ^o 4 :fl»- 




O Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 
• r Treatment Date: March 2006 

v 



X 



*&%iy* % * > o # ^^fo* o° PreservationTechnolog 

*»«*»* ^^ ^f* * * ° ^ A WORLD LEADER IN PAPER PRESERVA 







1 1 1 Thomson Park Drive 
Cranberry Town hip PA 16066 
(724) 779-21 11 



















.* • ■•!•« 



•bv" 



jP^K. V 










4 o 

" ***** : ^8fe **<* :* 

** *y ** • S3BK* * «? ^. •> v J«Lv ♦ 4/ ^ 








. » * A 






MOV 81^*^**^" ^ '•^•" a°° %*•••** 




ST. AUGUSTINE 




